750: austria, the orient, and easter Dec 27, 2016

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What do 'Austria', 'The Orient', and 'Easter' have in common? Well despite the fact that on the surface the meanings do not relate, and that the words do not sound terribly similar, they all descend etymologically from words meaning, 'East'. The Orient should not have a surprising etymology then, so long as you think of Asia as east of Europe, but 'orientation' comes from the same Latin root with 'oriri' meaning, 'to rise', and because of the semantic relation to the Sun, it eventually lead to words meaning, 'east'. 'Austria', itself may sound like the root for 'Australia' and other words meaning, 'south' (read more here) but there is no connection. 'Austria' is a Latinization of what is now, 'Österreich' or then, 'Ostarrîchi' which meant, 'eastern realm' as it is (somewhat) east of Germany. Finally, 'Easter' comes from an Old English word, 'ēastre' and according to St. Bede, is the name of a goddess associated with spring.

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