Eosturmonath

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An Old English term referring to the month now called April ; historically associated with a pagan festival honoring a goddess of spring and dawn ; sometimes interpreted as the period of an early springtime celebration
2. The Anglo-Saxon name for what became April ; originally linked to a seasonal festivity for a spring deity ; acknowledged as marking ancient spring rituals
3. An early English designation for April ; connected to rites celebrating a dawn or fertility goddess ; recognized as the time for spring renewal festivities

Etymology: Old English "Eosturmonath" was the name for April, and it is recorded in the Venerable Bede's "De Temporum Ratione," written in Latin in the early 730s. Bede explained that the English had once called the month after the goddess "Eostre," whose festival was held then, and that the name later gave way to the Christian term "Pascha" (Easter). Bede is the only source for the goddess, and the name survives nowhere else in Old English texts. The word is compound: "Eosturmonath" joins "Eostur-", the name of the goddess or the spring festival, with "monath", meaning "month". Old English "monath" is related to "mona", "moon", and the months were reckoned by the lunar cycle, so the element reflects the same counting by moons that later gave English words like "month" their form. Scholars debate whether Eostre was a real deity worshipped in England or a figure Bede inferred from the name of a festival. The name's meaning is also uncertain; a connection to a word for "east" or "dawn" is often proposed but cannot be proven. What is securely known is that the month name existed and that Bede wrote it down.