Pinkster is a Dutch noun derived from the Greco-Latin pentecoste, meaning 50th (day), i.e., after Easter. Pfingsten is the German reflex of the same loan word, exhibiting sound changes as result of the High German Sound Shift (eg., p>pf). Pinksteren is a verbal development of the same loan word.

C. Gehring
New Netherland Project

Charles Gehring
New Netherland Project
New York State Library
Albany, New York 12230
tel: 518/474-6067
fax: 518/473-0472
email: [log in to unmask]
web: www.nnp.org

>>> [log in to unmask] 05/07/02 08:44AM >>>
Hello, everyone.

I have a "word history" question of sorts. On May 18 and 19, Historic Hudson Valley will be holding its annual Pinkster festival at the Philipsburg Manor restoration in Sleepy Hollow. Pinkster, as it evolved in the Hudson Valley, was an amalgam of Dutch and African traditions celebrated each spring by both settlers and slaves. There seem to be some minor differences, however, over the history of the word itself. I have confirmed from a contemporary dictionary, that the Dutch word for Pentecost is Pinksteren or Pinksterfeest. Can anyone tell me whether that word would have been the same, or how it might have been different, in the 17th or 18th century? (Some believe that the word might have been Pfingsten, which strikes me as clearly High German.)

Many thanks,
Scott Monje