An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Gott

by Friedrich Kluge

Gott, masculine, ‘God,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German got, masculine, a term common to Teutonic, unknown to the rest of the Aryan group; compare Old Saxon, Dutch, Anglo-Saxon and English god, Old Icelandic guð, goð, Gothic guþ, ‘God.’ The form of the Gothic and Scandinavian words is neuter (compare Abgott), but the gender is masculine. Old Icelandic goð, neuter, is mostly used in the plural Gothic guda- and guþa-, neuter, ‘God,’ are based upon Aryan ghu-to-m., in which -to- is the participle suffix discussed under falt, laut, and traut. The Aryan root ghu- is Sanscrit hû, ‘to invoke the gods’ (participle hū̆tá-). Gott in the originally neuter form is the ‘invoked being’; in the Vedas the epithet puruhûta, ‘oft-invoked,’ is usually applied to Indra. The word Gott being specifically Teutonic, there is no term common to this group and one of the allied languages (yet compare Old Icelandic tíve, ‘deity,’ with Sanscrit dêva, Latin deus?) Göttin, the feminine of Gott, is from the equivalent Middle High German gotinne, götinne, gutinne, Old High German gutin (Gothic *gudini, Anglo-Saxon gyden, Dutch godin).