Thunar

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Thunar, a learned borrowing from Old Saxon Thunær. Doublet of Thor, Thunor, and thunder.

Proper noun

Thunar

1. (dated) The god Thor in continental Germanic mythology.
   • 1863 March, “Folk Lore. Whence It Arose, and What It Meant. Part II”, in Temple Bar, volume 7, page 4[4]2:

     On the other hand, since the devil has, to a great extent, usurped the place of Thunar, it naturally follows that the favourite animal of the fallen god is often found reversing his former functions, and ministering to the powers of darkness.

   • 1882 [1835], Jacob Grimm, translated by James Steven Stallybrass, Teutonic Mythology, volume 1, page 161:

     From this it follows at all events, that the worship of Thunar also prevailed in those regions […]

   • 1981 [1905], Maurice Winternitz, translated by V. Srinivasa Sarma, A History of Indian Literature, volume 1, page 76:

     And most European mythologists followed them and saw in the Indra armed with thunderbolt a counterpart to the Germanic Thunar, who swings the thunder hammer Mjoelnir, a thunder-god of the prehistoric Indo-Germanic age […]