Moin

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For other uses of Moin, see Moin (disambiguation).

Moin is a Frisian-language greeting from East Frisia, the eastern Netherlands, North Frisia and Flensburg, meaning hello.

[edit] Usage

Its use spread during the first half of the 20th century over the whole of northern Schleswig-Holstein; it is also used in the Danish dialect Southern Jutish. Due to the German comic character Werner (who always greets with moin), since the 1980s it is used more and more in central Europe as well.

People in more southern parts of Germany often mistakenly assume that Moin is a short form of Morgen (meaning "morning") and should be used like "good morning". Saying "Moin moin" in parts of Germany other than the north will brand you as a northerner.

[edit] Derivation

The word derives from the Frisian word mooi, meaning "beautiful" or "good". In the also popular form Moin Moin, the second moin (also morn) means "day" in Frisian. Similar forms in Low saxon are mooien Dag, mooien Abend, mooien Mor(g)en. Moin is semantically equivalent to the low saxon greeting Tag and replaced it in many areas. Therefore, Moin can be used 24 hours a day. The duplication Moin Moin is used as emphasis and for a more polite form as well. In Southern Jutish, Mojn is used for hello and good bye, but Mojn Mojn is solely used for good bye. Moin moin literally means "(Have a) good day".

Moin is also a likely root for the Finnish informal greetings moi ("hello" or "hi") and moi moi ("goodbye") which are typical of Southwestern Finnish.