Recently, at one of our Greek Revision sessions, someone asked about the derivation of Easter. As an aside someone else also mentioned the derivation of Maundy.
The following is taken from the Oxford English Dictionary, Compact Version, which is a ‘condensation’ of the full edition into two volumes of tiny print, 4 pages onto one page, 2 volumes instead of 12 (as it used to be, it is now 20 volumes, and the next edition, if it is ever printed, is projected to be 40 volumes).
Easter
The word is of Northumbrian origin and the forms given in the OED are:
eastron -un -an -u -o as plural, and
eastro, eostro , eastru as singular.
There are various forms listed as being in use from the 4th to 6th century as follows:
- 3rd & 5th century eastro
- 3rd – 6th century esterne
- 4th -6th century ester
- 5th century ester(e), eesterne, estryn
- 6th century estur
and finally from the 6th century onwards easter.
Baeda (I think this is the Venerable Bede but I cannot be sure) gives the derivation from eostre which is the Northumbrian spelling of eastre which is the name of a goddess who festival was celebrated at the vernal equinox; her name (from Old Teutonic austron cognate with Sanskrt usra meaning dawn) shows that she was originally the dawn goddess.
Maundy
This turned out to be a lot simpler and after listing various forms of the word from the 2nd to 8th centuries it (the OED) then derives the word from the Latin mando I commit to the charge of, I order, or I commmand and mandatum an order or a commandment.
Although my copy of the OED as a the Compact Dictionary is fairly complete one thing it is lacking is a comprehensive list of Works and Authors quoted.
