entry
stunde
/ˈsdɔnˀ/Strive, yearn, or approach a time
From Proto-Germanic, via Old Norse and Old Danish stund (A point in time).
from Old Norse stunda. === Verb === stunde (imperative stund, infinitive at stunde, present tense stunder, past tense...
Word Ancestry
from Old Norse stunda. === Verb === stunde (imperative stund, infinitive at stunde, present tense stunder, past tense...
A Danish speaker meeting stunde in an old text encounters a verb with two surprisingly related directions: yearning toward something and nearing a time. Its ancestor, Old Norse stunda, carried the idea of pressing or striving toward a destination, while Old Danish preserved it as stundæ. The related noun stund means a moment or hour, suggesting a “standing point” in time; this is why the word is connected with stande and stå, “to stand.” The deeper family is traced to Proto-Germanic *stundō and probably to the Indo-European root *steh₂-, the same ancient root behind standing still. So stunde gives us a wonderfully compact image: to yearn is to lean mentally toward something, while to approach a deadline is to move toward a fixed point on time’s road.
The Story
A Danish speaker meeting stunde in an old text encounters a verb with two surprisingly related directions: yearning toward something and nearing a time. Its ancestor, Old Norse stunda, carried the idea of pressing or striving toward a destination, while Old Danish preserved it as stundæ. The related noun stund means a moment or hour, suggesting a “standing point” in time; this is why the word is connected with stande and stå, “to stand.” The deeper family is traced to Proto-Germanic *stundō and probably to the Indo-European root *steh₂-, the same ancient root behind standing still. So stunde gives us a wonderfully compact image: to yearn is to lean mentally toward something, while to approach a deadline is to move toward a fixed point on time’s road.
Kin & Kindred
From 'stund'·A point in time, hour; figuratively, movement toward a goal or moment
Cognates
Related words in other languages
Derived Terms
English words from this root
Sources
Wiktionary