In the etymology subreddit, someone made note of the fact that in various languages, the word for "night" is the same as the word for "eight" with the letter "n" added. This is true. He/she offered a theoretical and totally incorrect hypothesis.
I won't give the correct explanation here. I'll let readers ponder the curiosity before seeking the correct explanation, which is buried down in the comment thread in the reply by BeansandDoritos.
if i had to spitball a wrong but amusing theory, i would have guessed noon + eight, with the day being split into three eight-hour segments: morning, noon, and night.
ReplyDeleteIn Ukrainian: ніч (neech) = night; вісім (vee-seem) = eight.
ReplyDeleteHowever, interesting how the Ukrainian word for 'night' sounds kinda close to the sound of the listed words.
In Norwegian, åtte is "eight" and natt is "night"
DeleteDutch complies as well, being equal to German in this case. Although we pronounce it better, of course.
ReplyDelete