Maybe I'll be able to get better acquainted with etymology this weekend!

I love etymology!

"Ēostre" - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%92ostre

 neopaganism.

Name

Etymology

The theonym has been reconstructed as *Ēastre (Old English), *Ôstara (Old High German) and *Āsteron (Old Saxon).^[4][5] These are cognates – linguistic siblings stemming from a common origin. They derive from the Proto-Germanic theonym Austrō(n),^[4][5] itself a descendant of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *h₂ews-reh₂ (cf. Lithuanian auš(t)rà, 'dawn, daybreak'), extended from the PIE root *h₂ews-, meaning 'to shine, glow (red)'.^[6][5] The modern English east also derives from this root, via the Proto-Germanic adverb *aust(e)raz ('east, eastwards'), from an earlier PIE *h₂ews-tero- ('east, towards the dawn').^[5]

According to linguist Guus Kroonen, the Germanic and Baltic languages replaced the old formation *h₂éws-os, the name of the PIE dawn-goddess, with a form in *-reh₂-, likewise found in the Lithuanian deity Aušrinė.^[5] In Anglo-Saxon England, her springtime festival gave its name to a month (Northumbrian: Ēosturmōnaþ, West Saxon: Eastermonað),^[7] the rough equivalent of April, then to the Christian feast of Easter that eventually displaced it.^[4][8] In southern Medieval Germany, the festival Ôstarûn similarly gave its name to the month Ôstarmânôth, and to the modern feast of Ostern ('Easter'), suggesting that a goddess named *Ôstara was also worshipped there.^[9][8] The name of the month survived into 18th-century German as Ostermonat.^[10] An Old Saxon equivalent of the spring goddess named *Āsteron may also be reconstructed from the term asteronhus, which is translated by most scholars as 'Easter-house', which would parallel the Medieval Flemish Paeshuys ('Easter-house').^[11] Frankish historian Einhard also writes in his Vita Karoli Magni (early 9th century CE) that after Charlemagne defeated and converted the continental Saxons to Christianity, he gave Germanic names to the Latin months of the year, which included the Easter-month Ostarmanoth.^[12]

The Old English Ēostre is therefore a distant cognate of numerous other dawn goddesses attested among Indo-European-speaking peoples, including Uṣás, Ēṓs, and Aurōra. In the words of the Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture, "a Proto-Indo-European goddess of the dawn is supported both by the evidence of cognate names and the similarity of mythic representation of the dawn goddess among various Indo-European groups. [...] All of this evidence permits us to posit a Proto-Indo-European *h_aéusōs 'goddess of dawn' who was characterized as a 'reluctant' bringer of light for which she is punished. In three of the Indo-European stocks, Baltic, Greek and Indo-Iranian, the existence of a Proto-Indo-European 'goddess of the dawn' is given additional linguistic support in that she is designated the 'daughter of heaven'."^[13]