Origin of the Words: Moon and Luna

Moon

The word ‘Moon’ has its origin in the old English word ‘mona’. There were words similar to the old English ‘mona’ in other archaic languages that were used to refer to the Moon. They were ‘mene’ in Old Frisian (an old Germanic language spoken in 500 to 700AD), ‘mane’ in middle dutch, ‘mano’ in old Saxon, old Icelandic and Danish.

It wasn’t until the 15th century that English speaking people began spelling the word ‘mona’ as moon or occasionally as ‘moone’ with a silent ‘e’ added onto the back of it. The Latin word for moon is Luna, which was the Roman God for the Moon or the Roman version of the Greek Goddess Selene.

Selene

Selene is a Greek word and most likely comes from the Greek root ‘selas’, meaning brightness. Lunar in English is used to refer to the moon, and it is interesting to note that in antiquity lunar was also used to refer to a women’s menstrual cycle and also to insanity.

Moon Masculine or Feminine?

In English, the word Moon was regarded for a while as a masculine word, coming essentially from the “man in the moon” however now, it seems that it has changed and it has now become a feminine word.

Luna

Luna was the Roman Goddess of the Moon and so that is why in Italian, French, Portuguese and Spanish the Moon is feminine. For example in Spanish the Moon is ‘La Luna’ and in French the Moon is ‘La Lune’.

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