seasons

Cheryl Asked:

Winter and summer

Where did the word "winter" and summer come from? How did they come about

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Answers

Ol' Yeddar Answered:

Etymology - winter

From Proto-Germanic *wintra-, probably representing a nasalised variant of Proto-Indo-European *wed- ( > English water, wet). Cognate with Old Frisian winter, Old Saxon winter (Dutch winter), Old High German wintar (German Winter), Old Norse vetr (Swedish vinter) and Gothic ??????????????; and, outside the Germanic languages, with Latin unda (“‘wave’”) and Lithuanian vanduõ (“‘water’”).

summer (1)

"hot season of the year," O.E. sumor, from P.Gmc. *sumur- (cf. O.S., O.N., O.H.G. sumar, O.Fris. sumur, M.Du. somer, Du. zomer, Ger. Sommer), from PIE base *sem- (cf. Skt. sama "season, half-year," Avestan hama "in summer," Armenian amarn "summer," O.Ir. sam, O.Welsh ham, Welsh haf "summer"). O.N. sumarsdag, first day of summer, was the Thursday that fell between April 9 and 15. For Indian summer see India. The verb meaning "to pass the summer" is recorded from c.1440. Summer camp is attested from 1893; summer resort is from 1832; summer school first recorded 1860; theatrical summer stock id attested from 1942. Summertime is recorded from 1377; in Britain, as two words, with ref. to what in U.S. is "daylight saving time," it is recorded from 1916.
ME sumer < OE sumor, akin to Ger sommer < IE base *sem-, summertime > Sans sama, half year, season6

ME will be middle englishOE is old englishIE is indo-european
I am not at all sure that this is what you wanted, but is is the etymology of these two words. If you want to rephrase your question, I will take another shot at it.

Posted 3 years ago
Helpful (1)

Keep close to Nature's heart... climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.* Victims of circumstance owe it to fate. Victims of choice owe it to themselves. *Band of One.