morgen

Morgen is a word in several Germanic languages with two primary temporal meanings: the morning, the early part of the day, and tomorrow, the day after today. In German, the word exists as a noun der Morgen meaning “the morning,” which is capitalized, and as an adverb meaning “tomorrow” (morgen). Common phrases include Guten Morgen for a greeting, morgen früh for “tomorrow morning,” and übermorgen for “the day after tomorrow.” In Dutch, morgen most often means “tomorrow” but can also refer to the morning in context; the standard greeting is goedemorgen. In other Scandinavian languages, cognates such as Norwegian morgen and Swedish morgon reflect similar distinctions, with context helping to disambiguate.

Etymology traces the term to Proto-Germanic roots related to the notion of dawn and is cognate with English morn, Dutch morgen, and Swedish morgon. The word has been preserved across the Germanic language family and remains a common element in time expressions and everyday speech.

In modern usage, morgen is frequently used in schedules, calendars, and greetings, and compounds such as morgen früh (tomorrow morning) or übermorgen (the day after tomorrow in German) illustrate its role in temporal framing.