Hello and Happy April Fool’s Day!
Naturally on a blog called Wordfoolery I celebrate this day as a special one for fools, especially word fools. I thought I take a look at the word April this year and discovered its roots have grown into several different countries and languages.
Month names have various roots and have changed over time with thanks to Roman emperors, French revolutions, and dictators of all sorts but April joined the English dictionary with a little help from a Greek goddess and replaced one named for an Anglo-Saxon goddess. Either way it seems appropriate that April, or Avril, are still used as names for girls today.
April became the name of the fourth month in the English calendar around 1300, but it was originally spelled aueril. This was borrowed from Old French Avril which is still the name used in modern French. Although April was briefly called Germinal (strictly speaking this ran from 21 March to 21 April) in honour of seed germination. Those month name changes didn’t stick, but personally I liked they way they linked the months to what was happening in nature.
The French month of Avril was borrowed from Latin Aprilis. Aprilis was the second month in the ancient Roman calendar which started in March. This is how we end up with December (dec meaning ten) being the tenth month rather than the twelfth. Don’t worry about it, it will make your brain melt.
Back to April. The roots of Aprilis are murky. One theory is that it’s drawn from Apru, the Etruscan version of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. It’s not surprising that in a time when people lived in close proximity to nature that springtime, when species mate and plants rebound into life, the name of this perfect spring month would be connected to a goddess of love and fertility. Old folk etymology (note – this means it may be fake) link Aprilis to the Latin word aperire (to open) again linking to buds opening on trees and other fertile ideas.
Aprilis could simply be named “the following” or “next”, in relation to its position following the first month (March) in the Roman calendar as we had apero and the root word apo meaning “away” or “off”. These roots also give us aparah (second) in Sanskrit and afar (after) in Gothic. It is impossible to know for sure. April is either named after “next month” or after the Greek goddess of love in a nod towards spring fertility. I know which story I would choose.
It can be fun to look back and see what word April replaced in the English language. In this case the Old English name for the month was Eastermonað and this was named for a fertility goddess too. As you might guess the month was named Easter month. Although the date of Easter moves thanks to the phases of the moon, it is nearly always celebrated in April. The last March-time Easter was in 1997 and the next one will be in 2059 so don’t hold your breath.
Easter itself, in English, was named for the goddess Eostre. Her name comes from Proto Germanic austron (dawn) this is because aust (east) faced towards the rising sun. She was worshipped by the Angol-Saxons in pre-Christian times and with the coming of the new faith her name was used for the feast of Easter in much the same way Roman Saturnalia was transformed into Christmas. It’s worth noting that most other languages around English use some form of Latin’s Pascha for this feast which presumably links to Passover in the Jewish tradition and the timing of the the Easter story. Easter is called Pâcques in French, Cásca in Irish, Pascua in Spanish, Pasg in Welsh, and Pasen in Dutch. The only language I checked which has a similar East > Eostre > Easter linkage is Germany where it’s called Ostern (Ost means East in German) and lo and behold the Anglo-Saxons originated in Northern Germany.
In case you’re curious the association of eggs with Easter started early (pace eggs in 1610s) but the Easter Bunny turned up in 1904. Rabbits, or more probably hares which are particularly visible at this time of year, were associated with the goddess Eostre.
Now you know the story of April and Easter. Happy April Fool’s Day and (slightly belated) Happy Easter!
Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace (@Wordfoolery)
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