Just about all over now. Here it's still Whit Monday, a public holiday
in quite a few European countries; but that's just a modern extension of
Whit Sunday, a public holiday in a somewhat different list of European countries, and, under its Greek name of Pentecost, in Greece (of
course) and Iceland (?).
OE Hwīta Sunnandæg 'White Sunday', probably from the white robes of the newly-baptized at Pentecost (COD).
Greek pentēkostē (hēmera) 'fiftieth (day)'
(or "seventh Sunday after Easter"), when the Holy Spirit is said to have descended among the apostles.

Why fifty days? Well (I know it's not an answer, but) there is a Jewish
harvest festival, on the fiftieth day after the second day of Passover (Lev.23:15-16). That again from COD.

Meanwhile in the Muslim world, there's been a pretty intense few days.
First there was Arafah Day, in the Emirates.
"In Islam, "Arafah" (عَرِفَة) refers to the Day of Arafah, which is the ninth day of the Islamic month of Dhul-Hijjah.

It is the most holy day of the Islamic year and a pivotal part of the
Hajj pilgrimage, representing a time of repentance, forgiveness, and
seeking divine mercy."

And more. This is from AI, who should know...

This day, I guess, forms part of the "Eid al-Adha Holiday" in Jordan
(5-9 June), and is noted as "Hari Raya Haji (Feast of Sacrifice)" in
Singapore (6 June) -- though the Malay expression really means Feast of Pilgrimage.

But "Feast of Sacrifice" is what Eid al-Adha means.
"Eid al-Adha[a] (Arabic: عيد الأضحى, romanized: ʿĪd al-ʾAḍḥā, lit. 'Feast of Sacrifice') is the second of the two main festivals in
Islam alongside Eid al-Fitr. It falls on the 10th of Dhu al-Hijja, the
twelfth and final month of the Islamic calendar."

Apparently commemorating Abraham's (almost) sacrifice of his son Isaac.
Not one of my favourite Bible stories. Hear Leonard Cohen's "Story of
Isaac". He got fed up with blood-sacrifice and became a Buddhist.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-06-09, Ross Clark <[email protected]> wrote:

Just about all over now. Here it's still Whit Monday, a public holiday
in quite a few European countries; but that's just a modern extension of
Whit Sunday, a public holiday in a somewhat different list of European countries, and, under its Greek name of Pentecost, in Greece (of
course) and Iceland (?).

German "Pfingsten" is also borrowed from medieval Latin "pentecoste"
or such, but heavily reshaped.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Ar an naoiú lá de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Christian Weisgerber:

On 2025-06-09, Ross Clark <[email protected]> wrote:

Just about all over now. Here it's still Whit Monday, a public holiday
in quite a few European countries; but that's just a modern extension of Whit Sunday, a public holiday in a somewhat different list of European countries, and, under its Greek name of Pentecost, in Greece (of
course) and Iceland (?).

German "Pfingsten" is also borrowed from medieval Latin "pentecoste"
or such, but heavily reshaped.

David Marjanović, a well-educated Austrian on languagehat.com, does not like the DWB; I’m not sure why, I find it great, but then I’m not a native speaker,
let alone an educated native speaker. Their (the Grimms’, in the DWB) comment on Pfingsten is:

»plur., mhd. phingesten, pfingsten, ein dativ plur. der nach wegfall der
vorausgehenden präposition (an, vor, ze [den] pfingsten d. h.
pfingstfeiertagen) als nom. und accus. plur. gebraucht worden und sogar zu
einem nom. sing. diu pfingsten (liedersaal 2, 637, 30. 3, 387, 25) erstarrt
ist. vergl. ostern, weihnachten.
Vulfila hat das griech. πεντεκοστή (nämlich ἡμέρα, der 50. tag nach ostern)
als paintekustê aufgenommen, welches im ahd. bei Kero 41 mit umdeutschung von
πέμπε zu fimfchusti (dat. plur. fona fimfchustim), im mhd. mit regelrechter
verschiebung des anlautes und contraction zu phingeste, pfingst geworden,
aber wie im nhd. nur in zusammensetzungen erhalten ist. vereinzelt kommt der
sing. pfingst (mnd. pinkest Schiller-Lübben 3, 329 vom j. 1305) im 15. jahrh.
vor bei Dief. 423c, dem reime zu lieb z. b. auch bei Lenau (1880) 2, 16;
sonst erscheint der singular nur (wie schon mhd.) in der erstarrten form des
dativs plur. als die oder das pfingsten (das sächliche geschlecht bezogen auf
Fst): ...«

“A dative plural that was used as nominative and accusative plural (even as a nominative singular) after the loss of the preceding prepositions, compare Ostern, Weihnachten. Wulfila [c. 311-383, apostle to the Goths] took the greek πεντεκοστή up as paintekustê, which in Kero [eighth century] with Germanization
of πέμπε became fimifchusti, and then in Middle High German with regular shifting of the initial sound and contraction became phingeste, pfingst; however, as in New High German, it was only preserved in compounds. [translation of the above cut off] [...]”

For anyone curious, the OED supports what my instinct suggested (but what is not necessarily obvious to monolingual native speakers), that ‘whit’ was a variant of ‘white’:

“[late OE. Hwíta Sunnandæᵹ lit. ‘white Sunday’ (found once only and in
oblique form Hwítan S.); whence app. ON. hvítasunnudagr in the same sense,
also hvítasunnudagsaptann, -nátt, -vika (ON. hvítadagr ‘white day’,
hvítadróttinsdagr ‘white Lord’s-day’, hvítadagavika Whitsun week, cannot be
taken as evidence of an independent Norse origin; they are prob. due to
Icelandic attempts to obliterate heathen traces from the name of the
festival). The epithet ‘white’ is generally taken to refer to the ancient
custom of the wearing of white baptismal robes by the newly-baptized at the
feast of Pentecost (cf. Dominica in albis, the name of the First Sunday after
Easter, Low Sunday, given for the same reason). [...]]”

--
‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
(C. Moore)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Op 9/06/2025 om 15:56 schreef Christian Weisgerber:

On 2025-06-09, Ross Clark <[email protected]> wrote:

Just about all over now. Here it's still Whit Monday, a public holiday
in quite a few European countries; but that's just a modern extension of
Whit Sunday, a public holiday in a somewhat different list of European
countries, and, under its Greek name of Pentecost, in Greece (of
course) and Iceland (?).

German "Pfingsten" is also borrowed from medieval Latin "pentecoste"
or such, but heavily reshaped.

D. *Pinksteren* < pinkster-[dag] < pincsten
In Antwerp etc. also
*Sinksen* < oF cinquiesme < mL cinquagesima

--
guido wugi

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 2025-06-09, Aidan Kehoe <[email protected]> wrote:

German "Pfingsten" is also borrowed from medieval Latin "pentecoste"
or such, but heavily reshaped.

David Marjanović, a well-educated Austrian on languagehat.com, does not like the DWB; I’m not sure why, I find it great, but then I’m not a native speaker,
let alone an educated native speaker.

Yes, David Marjanović's comments are always worth reading.
Personally, I don't like the DWB because I find it exasperatingly
difficult to read.

“A dative plural that was used as nominative and accusative plural (even as a
nominative singular) after the loss of the preceding prepositions, compare Ostern, Weihnachten. Wulfila [c. 311-383, apostle to the Goths] took the greek
πεντεκοστή up as paintekustê, which in Kero [eighth century] with Germanization
of πέμπε became fimifchusti, and then in Middle High German with regular
shifting of the initial sound and contraction became phingeste, pfingst;

The entry is confusing, but those must be two independent developments
and separate forms:
- Greek > Gothic > germanized to OHG fimifchusti
- Greek (> Gothic?) > MHG pfingst with regular shift p > pf

Because you don't get to pf- from f-.

For anyone curious, the OED supports what my instinct suggested (but what is not necessarily obvious to monolingual native speakers), that ‘whit’ was a
variant of ‘white’:

Presumably one of those instances where the vowel was shortened in
Middle English and then the Great Vowel Shift happened, compare
"wild, wilderness".

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)