An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/heute

by Friedrich Kluge

heute, adv., ‘to-day,’ from the equiv. MidHG. hiute, OHG. hiutu; comp. OSax. hiudu, hiudiga (whence AS. heódœg), OFris. hiudega, ‘to-day’; a West Teut. adv. for Goth. *hiô daga, ‘on this day,’ with the accent on the pron., which resulted in the combination of the two words. In the same way *hiutagu became hiutgu, hiuttu, and was finally shortened into hiutu (comp. the similar origin of heuer). Farther, Lat. ho-die and Gr. σ-ήμερον are similarly compounded. Likewise for heute Nacht, ‘to-night,’ OHG. and MidHG. had a parallel adv.; comp. OHG. hî-naht (MidHG. hînet), ‘to-night’ (in Bav. and Suab. heint is used for ‘to-day’). The pronom. stem hi- contained in it appears in Goth. in a few cases, and indeed as a temporal pron., ‘this’; comp. himma daga, ‘to-day,’ and hina dag, ‘until to-day,’ &c. In the Sax. dials. this pronom. stem, which corresponds to Lat. ci- in ci-s, ci-tra, appears as a 3rd pers. pron.; comp. E. he, AS. hê, E. him, AS. him (Goth. himma), &c., OSax. and LG. hê, ‘he.’ See further her, hier.