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The Christian holiday Easter has several names. The names differ depending on languages, but most are derived from Greek and Latin "pascha". The modern English term ''Easter'' developed from the Old English word ''Ēastre'' or ''Ēostre'' (), which itself developed prior to 899, originally referring to the name of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Ēostre.〔Barnhart, Robert K. ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology'' (1995) ISBN 0-06-270084-7.〕 ==English ''Easter'', German ''Ostern'', and related== (詳細はOld English ''Eōstre'' continues into modern English as ''Easter'' and derives from Proto-Germanic *''austrōn'' meaning 'dawn', itself a descendent of the Proto-Indo-European root *''aus-'', meaning 'to shine' (modern English ''east'' also derives from this root).〔Watkins 2006 (): 2021.〕 Writing in the 8th century, the Anglo-Saxon monk Bede describes Ēostre as the name of an Old English goddess: "Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated "Paschal month", and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance."〔Wallis, Faith (Trans.) (1999). ''Bede: The Reckoning of Time''. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-693-3〕 Since the 19th century, numerous linguists have observed that the name is linguistically cognate with the names of dawn goddesses attested among Indo-European language-speaking peoples. By way of historical linguistics, these cognates lead to the reconstruction of a Proto-Indo-European dawn goddess; the ''Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture'' (1997) details that "a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn is supported both by the evidence of cognate names and the similarity of mythic representation of the dawn goddess among various () groups” and that “all of this evidence permits us to posit a () '' *haéusōs'' 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a "reluctant" bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the () stocks, Baltic, Greek and Indo-Iranian, the existence of a () 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'"〔(Mallory & Adams (1997:148–149) )〕 The first to propose this theory was Jacob Grimm, who in his ''Deutsche Mythologie'', first published in 1835, linked Bede's Eostre with the Old High German for Easter, ''ôstarâ'', and wrote: "This Ostarâ, like the Anglo-Saxon ''Eástre'', must in the heathen religion have denoted a higher being". He linked the word with Latin ''auster'' (meaning "south") and with ''Austri'', the male spirit of light mentioned in the Edda, who if thought of as female would be called ''Austra''. Grimm concluded: "''Ostara, Eástre'' seems to have been the divinity of the radiant dawn, of upspringing light."〔(Jacob Grimm, ''Teutonic Mythology'', vol. 1 (Courier Dover Publications 2004 ISBN 978-0-48643546-6), pp. 289–291 )〕 John Layard, quoting Billson, cites several authorities both for and against the existence of the postulated goddess and himself concludes in favour.〔(John Layard, ''The Lady of the Hare'' (Routledge 2012 ISBN 978-1-13618317-1), p. 178–179 )〕 The contributor Lincke to the ''Handwörterbuch des Deutschen Aberglaubens'' also cites scholars on both sides, but himself draws a negative conclusion.〔(Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer, Hanns Baechtold-Staeubli (editors), ''Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens'' (Walter de Gruyter 1974 ISBN 978-3-11006594-7), coll. 1311–1316 )〕 One German scholar describes Ostara as a "pseudo-goddess", the result of a misunderstanding.〔(Jürgen Udolph, ''Ostern: Geschichte eines Wortes'' (Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 1999 ISBN 978-3-82530866-7), p. 12 )〕 As of 2014, the Oxford English Dictionary has described alternatives to this etymology as "less likely", adding that "it seems unlikely that Bede would invent a fictitious pagan festival in order to account for a Christian one".〔"Easter, n.1." OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2014. Web. 23 April 2014.〕 Of course, given how common false patronymics and false etymologies were in classical and medieval histories, it is possible that Bede was sincerely repeating an etymology he heard elsewhere without having to implicate Bede in intentionally inventing a fictitious pagan festival. The name for Easter in Old English, including West Saxon, is usually not the singular feminine noun ''Ēastre'', but instead the plural noun ''Ēastrun'', ''-on'', also ''-an''. The neuter plural noun ''Ēastru'', ''-o'' is also found.〔K. Brunner, ''Altenglische Grammatik'', 3. Aufl., § 278. Anm. 3, cited in (''Die Sprache'', vol. 30 (Vienna, 1984), p. 61 )〕 In 1959, Johann Knobloch proposed a different etymology.〔Johann Knobloch, "Der Ursprung von nhd. ''Ostern'', engl. ''Easter''", in ''Die Sprache'' 5 (1959), 27-45〕 Writing of "the relationship between dawn and springtime, between night - or early morning - and daybreak in the Christian Eastern rituals of the East and the West",〔(Georges Dumézil, ''Camillus'' (University of California Press 1980 ISBN 978-0-52002841-8), p. 176 )〕 he proposed that the Old High German name for the feast, ''Ōst(a)rūn'', as a Gallo-Frankish coinage,〔(Wilhelm Havers (editor), ''Die Sprache'', vols. 30-31 (1984), p. 61 )〕 drawn from Latin ''albae'' in the designation of Easter Week as ''hebdomada in albis'' and in the phrase ''albae (paschales)''.〔(Jürgen Udolph, "Ostern" in ''Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde'', Volume 22 (Walter de Gruyter, 2003 ISBN 978-31-1017351-2) )〕 The Germanic word is connected with an Indoeuropean word for the dawn (''uşás-'', Avestan ''ušab-'', Greek ἠώς, Latin ''aurora'', Lithuanian ''aušrà'', Latvian ''àustra'', Old Church Slavonic ''za ustra''), and Knobloch links this derivation with the word ''albae'' in the phrases in Church Latin, with which are associated the French and Italian words for the dawn, and connected it with the dawn service of the Easter Vigil in which those to be baptized faced east when pronouncing their profession of faith.〔〔(D.H. Green, ''Language and History in the Early Germanic World'' (Cambridge University Press 2000 ISBN 978-0-52179423-7), pp. 351–353 )〕〔(Brockhaus Enzyklopädie in zwanzig Bänden, Volume 14 (ISBN 978-37-6530000-4), p. 15 )〕〔(Karl-Heinrich Bieritz, ''Das Kirchenjahr'' (C.H.Beck, 2005 ISBN 978-34-0647585-6), p. 90 )〕 Jürgen Udolph, himself a proponent of a different view, says that, although the theory that the words "Easter" and "Ostern" come from the name of a Germanic goddess reconstructed by Jacob Grimm as ''Ostara'' is the most widespread at a popular level, Knobloch's proposal enjoys most support,〔 A still more recent theory connects the English and German words not with the dawn but with a word associated with baptism. Jürgen Udolph published in 1999 his ''Ostern: Geschichte eines Wortes'',〔(Jürgen Udolph, ''Ostern: Geschichte eines Wortes'', Indogermanische Bibliothek, Series 3, vol. 20 (Universitätsverlag C. Winter, Heidelberg, 1999, ISBN 978-38-2530866-7) )〕 in which he argued for an origin from the North Germanic verb ''ausa'', "to pour". A pre-Christian rite of "baptism" and name-giving was referred to as ''vatni ausa'', "to pour water over". Since baptism was the central event in the Easter celebration in the first centuries of Christianity, it was argued that this background explains the name given to the feast.〔(Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache, "Fragen und Antworten" )〕 In some West Slavic languages the words for Easter – in Kashubian, in Upper Sorbian, in Lower Sorbian – apparently derive from a Germanic word related to English ''Easter'' and German ドイツ語:''Ostern''. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Names of Easter」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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