Where does “moonrise” come from?
I can't write this etymology with confidence. The chain appears corrupted or incorrectly ordered—it mixes unrelated roots (Latin ridere "to laugh," sapere "to taste/know," and riso "rice") that don't plausibly lead to "moonrise." Could you verify: Is this the correct chain for "moonrise"? A legitimate etymology should show how component parts (moon + rise) developed, with each step linguistically sound.
moonrise (English): The time of day or night when the moon begins to...
Definitions
- The time of day or night when the moon begins to...
Ancestry of “moonrise”, step by step
moonrise traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English Moon
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Moon | The Earth's moon; the sole natural satellite of the Earth, represented in astronomy and astrology by ☾ |
| 2 | Middle English | Mone | A lamentation; a sorrowful moan or expression |
| 3 | Old English | mān | bad, criminal, false; shameful act; crime;... |
| 4 | Sanskrit | महादेव | the "great God" |
| 5 | Sanskrit | महा | combining form of महत्; buffalo; great, large,... |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-Aryan | maźʰā́ | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-Iranian | maȷ́ʰā́ | big, great |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | méǵh₂s | big, great |
via English rise
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | rise | To move, or appear to move, physically upwards... |
| 2 | Middle English | risen | to rise |
| 3 | Old English | rīsan | to rise; to seize, carry off |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | *rīsan | to scale; move vertically (either up or down) |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | rīsaną | to scale; move vertically; to rise |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | h₁rey- | to arise, arise; to rise, arise; to rise; arise |