Oktober

Forms

Oktober m (genitive Oktobers or Oktober, plural Oktober)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German octōber, borrowed from Latin Octōber, from octō (“eight”): it was the eighth month of the old Roman year, which began in March, and kept its name after the calendar reform made it the tenth.^[2][3][4] Wahrig notes that the ending ⟨-ber⟩ is of unclear origin.^[5] Middle High German also had octember, after November.^[3][6] Kluge dates the borrowing to the 14th century.^[2] The same Latin name gave Dutch oktober, English October, French octobre and Swedish oktober.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German october is recorded from the third quarter of the 13th century, in the Jüngerer Titurel, and in a document of 1275, meaning the tenth month.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

In Old High German the month was called windumemānōth “month of the grape harvest”, from Latin vindemia, one of the names given by Charlemagne;^[4][8] Luther in the 16th century still used Weinmond.^[4][8] The Latin name prevailed in the end.^[8] The compound Oktoberfest, the Munich festival, was borrowed into English and Hebrew.^[9]

Timeline

• 3rd quarter of the 13th century – Middle High German october appears in the Jüngerer Titurel.^[7]
• 1275 – The word appears in a document.^[7]
• 16th century – Luther still uses the native name Weinmond.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. October, the tenth month of the year.^[10][1]

Word family

• Oktoberfest

Related words

• acht
• Oktave
• English October

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 669
3. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 595
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 140
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
10. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag