An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Nacht

by Friedrich Kluge

Nacht, feminine, ‘night,’ from the equivalent Old High German and Middle High German naht, feminine; corresponding to Gothic nahts, Old Icelandic nótt, Anglo-Saxon neaht, niht, English night, Dutch nacht, Old Saxon naht, feminine; a common Old Teutonic naht-, feminine, from common Aryan nokt-, ‘night.’ Compare Latin nox (stem nocti-), Greek νύξ (νυκτ-), Sanscrit nákta-, naktan-, neuter, nákti-, feminine, Lithuanian naktìs, Old Slovenian noštĭ. While the word ‘night’ is common to all the Aryan languages, they differ considerably in the terms for ‘day’; this is due to the fact that time in the primitive Aryan period was counted by nights and not by days; relics of this method are seen in Fastnacht, ‘Shrove Tuesday,’ Weihnachten, ‘Christmas,’ and English fortnight, sennight (compare Ostern and Osten). Only a few main divisions of time, such as Monat and Jahr, are widely diffused.