Glad midsommar!
Etymologically presents
Midsommar Etymologies
The longest days of the year, when the sun hardly sets over Scandinavia: maypoles and smörgåsbords, the everyday words the Vikings left in English, and seven flowers to sleep on.
The longest day
Maypoles, herring and strawberries under a sun that barely sets.
- Old English midsummer from midsumor The middle of summer, around the solstice. In Sweden, midsommar is the great feast of the year, kept on the Friday and Saturday between 19 and 26 June. Read the full etymology →
- Old English summer from sumor From a root meaning “half-year, season”, shared with Sanskrit samā, “year, season”. For the Germanic peoples the year had two halves, summer and winter. Read the full etymology →
- 1550s maypole from May + pole The English pole was raised on May Day. The Swedish midsommarstång is sometimes called a majstång, and the maj may not be the month at all but maja, “to decorate with leaves”. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1300 June from Latin Iunius The Roman month, probably named for the goddess Juno, though some Roman writers derived it from iuniores, “the younger men”. Read the full etymology →
- 1893 smorgasbord from Swedish smörgåsbord Bord is a table, and smörgås an open sandwich, literally a “butter goose”, perhaps because lumps of churned butter looked like geese. Read the full etymology →
- Old English herring from hǣring A word shared by the Germanic languages, of uncertain origin: perhaps from its grey colour, or from a word for a host, for its enormous shoals. Read the full etymology →
- 1890 aquavit from Latin aqua vitae “water of life” The Scandinavian spirit flavoured with caraway or dill, sung to and drunk at midsummer. Whisky, from Irish uisce beatha, means the same thing. Read the full etymology →
- Old English strawberry from strēawberige Nobody is sure why the berry has straw in it: perhaps for the runners that stray over the ground, perhaps for the tiny seeds like chaff. Read the full etymology →
- Old English dill from dile Common to the Germanic languages, of unknown origin. Swedish dill flavours the new potatoes of the midsummer table. Read the full etymology →
Words the Vikings left us
Norse settlers in England lent English some of its most everyday words.
- c. 1200 sky from Old Norse ský “cloud” At first a cloud. It took over the heavens from Old English heofon, which retreated to religion. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1200 window from Old Norse vindauga The “wind eye”: an unglazed hole in the roof or wall. It replaced Old English ēagþyrel, “eye-hole”. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1200 they from Old Norse þeir Even a pronoun was borrowed. They replaced Old English hīe, and them and their followed. Read the full etymology →
- late 14th century happy from Old Norse happ “luck” Happy was lucky before it was glad; the same hap is in perhaps and happen. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1300 ugly from Old Norse uggligr “dreadful” From uggr, “fear”: the ugly thing was frightful before it was merely unattractive. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1300 skirt from Old Norse skyrta “shirt” The same word as the native shirt: English kept both, the Norse sk and the English sh, and gave them different jobs. Read the full etymology →
- c. 1200 ransack from Old Norse rannsaka “To search a house”, from rann, “house”, and sǫkja, “to seek”: a legal search for stolen goods, before it became plunder. Read the full etymology →
- 1822 berserk from Old Norse berserkr A frenzied warrior, probably “bear-shirt”, though some read “bare shirt”, fighting without armour. Walter Scott brought the word into English. Read the full etymology →
- Old English Thursday from Þunresdæg, Old Norse Þórsdagr Thunor’s day, reshaped by the Norse into Thor’s day. Both were names of the thunder god. Read the full etymology →
- 1709 saga from Old Norse saga “narrative” The prose histories of medieval Iceland, from the same root as say. Any long, eventful story is now a saga. Read the full etymology →
Seven flowers
On Midsummer Night, tradition says, pick seven kinds of wildflower in silence and sleep with them under your pillow, and you will dream of the one you will marry.
0 of 7 flowers picked
- dandelion French dent de lion, “lion’s tooth”, for the jagged edges of its leaves.
- foxglove Old English foxes glōfa, the fox’s glove. Why a fox should wear one is anyone’s guess, and many have guessed.
- geranium Greek géranos, “crane”, for its long, beak-like seed pod; one of its English names is cranesbill.
- forget-me-not A translation of Old French ne m’oubliez mye, the flower worn so that a lover would be remembered.
- lupin Latin lupinus, “wolfish”, perhaps because the plant was thought to ravage the soil like a wolf.
- chamomile Greek khamaímēlon, “earth-apple”, for its low growth and apple-like scent.
- lavender Medieval Latin lavendula, of uncertain origin; it may be connected with washing, since it scented baths and linen.