MOIN

:''For other uses of Moin, see Moin (disambiguation).''
'''Moin''' is a Frisian-language greeting from East Frisia, North Frisia, Bremen, Flensburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the eastern Netherlands and Southern Jutland in Denmark, meaning ''hello''.

Contents

Usage

Derivation

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" in parts of Germany other than the north will brand you as a northerner. Non-locals often fall into the trap of using "Moin moin" instead of "Moin", which is more commonly used amongst the locals.

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 (Plattdüütsch) 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.