golden hour

English

Etymology

golden +‎ hour

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -aʊə(ɹ)

Noun

golden hour (plural golden hours)

1. (medicine) The first sixty minutes after sustaining major traumatic injury, during which there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical treatment will prevent death.

   Synonym: golden time

2. (photography) A period shortly after sunrise or before sunset, during which daylight is redder and softer than when the Sun is higher in the sky.

   Coordinate term: blue hour

3. (television) In Japanese television, the period between 7 and 9 pm, the equivalent of the American prime time.
4. (television, in the plural) Hours worked outside of normal working hours, for which additional money is paid.
   • 1988, The Listener, volume 119, page 14:

     Goodbye 'golden hours': As pressure mounts for ITV to set its house in order, Andrew Dickson explains the nature of its restrictive practices and what lies at stake if the unions refuse to make concessions.

   • 2016, Jeremy Potter, Independent Television in Britain, volume 4, page 23:

     'Golden hours' were introduced nationally in 1972, ostensibly to protect staff from having to work unsocial hours and to compensate them for 'grief' if required to do so. Formerly those working after midnight could claim three times the normal rate; […]

Translations

the first hour after a traumatic injury

• French: heure d’or f

period shortly after sunrise or before sunset

• French: heure dorée f