Raymond A. Brown wrote:
> Yep - I've also seen this connexion given. But simply connecting 'Eostre'
> with Greek 'eos' looks very much like folk etymology to me. Especially as
> the ancient Greel was not uniformally 'eo:s' in any case. The Attic Greek
> was probably 'heo:s' and Ionic & Homeric was 'e:o:s', but the Ionians
> "dropped their aitches" early on. We come across also Corinthian 'a:wo:s'
> (with a wau or 'digamma'). They derive regularly from an earlier *ha:wo:s
> <-- *a:who:s <-- PIE *a:wso:s. The latter develops regularly in Latin to
> auro:r-a.
>
> I have seen it suggested that both Eoastre/Eostre and the Old English
> e:ast- (east) are derived also from PIE *a:wso:s. But there seem to me
> difficulties with such a derivation.
The derivation I saw said Eostre/Eastre was from Proto-Germanic
*austron. The similar beginnings of Eostre and Eos could just be
coincidence due to orthography.