Editing Samhain (section)

===Etymology===
These names all come from the [[Old Irish|Old]] and [[Middle Irish]] ''Samain'' or ''Samuin'' {{IPA|sga|ˈsaṽɨnʲ|}}, the name for the festival held on 1 November in medieval Ireland. Traditionally, it is derived from [[Proto-Indo-European language|proto-Indo-European]] ''*semo'' ('summer').<ref>Pokorny, Julius. ''[[IEW]]'' (1959), s.v. "sem-3", p.&nbsp;905.</ref><ref>Rogers, Nicholas (2002). "Samhain and the Celtic Origins of Halloween". ''Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night'', pp. 11–21. New York: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-19-516896-8}}.</ref> But as [[John T. Koch]] points out, it is unclear why a festival marking the beginning of winter would include the word for 'summer'.<ref>Koch, ''Celtic Culture'', p.&nbsp;1558</ref> Linguist [[Joseph Vendryes]] contends that it is unrelated, saying that the Celtic summer ended in August.<ref>Vendryes, ''Lexique Étymologique de l'Irlandais Ancien'' (1959). {{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> More recently, linguists [[Xavier Delamarre]] and [[Ranko Matasović]] have proposed that it derives from [[proto-Celtic]] *''samoni'' ('reunion, assembly'), [[cognate]] with [[Old Norse]] ''saman'', [[Gothic language|Gothic]] ''samana'' and [[Sanskrit]] ''samāná'' (all meaning 'together'), as well as the Old Irish term ''bech-samain'' ('bee swarm').{{sfn|Matasović|2009|p=322}} Delamarre further suggests it could refer to an "assembly of the living and the dead".{{sfn|Delamarre|2003|p=267}}

[[File:Coligny-closeup.jpg|thumb|''Samonios'' on the [[Coligny calendar]]]]
The word ''Samain'' is believed to be related to the month name <small>''SAMON''</small> on the [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] [[Coligny calendar]] from the 2nd century CE.<ref>Stüber, Karin. ''The Historical Morphology of N-Stems in Celtic''. National University of Ireland, Maynooth, 1998, p. 111.</ref> The 17th day of <small>''SAMON''</small> is marked as <small>''TRINOX SAMONI''</small> ("the three nights of ''Samon''"), indicating a possible festival.<ref name="Lambert">{{cite book|author1=[[Pierre-Yves Lambert]]|date=2003|isbn=2-87772-224-4|location=Paris|page=110|publisher=Errance|series=Hespérides|title=La langue gauloise: Description linguistique, commentaire d'inscription choisies}}</ref> This festival could represent the early November festival of Samain, or possibly the [[summer solstice]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=McCluskey |first1=Stephen |title=Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe |date=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=58}}</ref> Six months later is the month <small>''GIAMON''</small>, which appears to contain the word for "winter".<ref>Koch, ''Celtic Culture'', p. 464</ref> An early Irish glossary, ''[[Sanas Cormaic]]'', gives ''Gamain'' as "November, the winter month after the festival of ''Samain''".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Arbuthnot |first1=Sharon |title=From Glosses to Dictionaries: The Beginnings of Lexicography |date=2019 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |page=132 |chapter=The Irish Tradition}}</ref>