Several recent posts have identified the English word 'Easter' with
the Babylonian goddess 'Ishtar'.

'Easter' is a pagan word all right, but it has nothing to do with Ishtar.
If 'Easter' and 'Ishtar' were related, their history would show it.
But in Old English, Easter was 'Eostre', cognate with English 'East'
and German 'Ost'.   The reconstructed Proto-Germanic form is 'Austron'.
Not until after 1400 did 'Easter' have a high front vowel like 'Ishtar'.
Clearly, the two words have quite separate origins.

There may be neo-pagans who worship Ishtar at Easter, but if so, they
are making either a mistake of etymology, or a deliberate play on words.

-- Michael Covington  (Ph.D., linguistics)


