Carl Hult schrieb:
>
>
> Is there a clear etymology of the german word for now, jetzt? I´ve been
> looking for 16 years now and no book has ever been "kind" enough to
> give me a straight answer. Can you help? BTW, what´s the story behind
> Heute?
>
> Carl
it appears to be a derivative of "ie" (immer) siehe Redewendungen
wie "je und je") and "zuo" . Its older forms as "itzt" and , without
the extesnison "t" the forms _"jetzo, itzo" are derived from MhD
"iezuo, ieze, iezo:"
the "ie" for itself appears to be an old form of a germanic word
which meant "time". For this see the germanic cognates as MhD "ie",
AhD "io, eo", Got. "aiw", OldIsl. "ae", OldEngl. "a:" and some other
words related to "ewig".
heute: there are some thoughts this should be a calque of Latin
"hodie". MhD "hiute", AhD "hiutu". The parts who made it could be
AhD "Hiu Tagu" ( instrumental = an diesem Tag), Abl. "heutig" in MhD
"hiutec" and AhD "Hiutig".
Alex