An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Wonne

by Friedrich Kluge

Wonne, feminine, ‘rapture, ecstasy, bliss,’ from Middle High German wunne (wünne), Old High German wunna (wunni), feminine, ‘joy, pleasure, the most beautiful and best’; corresponding to Old Saxon wunnia, ‘joy,’ Anglo-Saxon wynn. Gothic *wunni (genitive *wunnjôs) was probably a verbal abstract of Gothic wunan, ‘to rejoice,’ the root of which (Aryan wen, ‘to be pleased’) appears in wohnen. Old High German wunnea (Middle High German wünne), ‘pasture-land,’ has been considered as identical with Wonne; yet that word, like Gothic winja, ‘pasture, fodder,’ has its own early history. It has been preserved in Wonnemonat, ‘month of May,’ Middle High German wunnemânôt (winnemânôt), on. wunni-, winni-, mânôd, literally ‘pasture month.’