Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/132

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Comp. Sau (lit. ‘ace (of cards)’ then generally ‘good fortune’) and Hund.

Gefängnis, n., ‘prison,’ from MidHG. gevencnisse, f., n., ‘imprisonment’; allied to fangen.

Gefäß, n., ‘vessel, receptacle,’ from the equiv. MidHG. gevœȥe, n. (OHG. givâȥȥi, m., ‘transport’). Goth. *gafêti, n., is wanting; it would probably be connected with Goth. fêtjan, ‘to adorn’ (AS. fœted, partic., ‘adorned’), and also more remotely with Faß.

Gefieder, n., ‘feathers, plumage, fowls,’ from the equiv. MidHG. gevidere, OHG. gefidari, n.; collective of Feder.

Gefilde, n., ‘fields, plain,’ from the equiv. MidHG. gevilde, OHG. gefildi, n.; collective of Feld.

geflissen, partic. of a lost vb. fleißen, ‘assiduous, busy,’ See Fleiß.

gegen, prep., ‘against, opposite to, in presence of, in comparison with,’ from MidHG. gęgen, OHG. gęgin, gagan, ‘against’ (in OHG. and MidHG. almost always with a dat.); allied to the MidHG. adv. gęgene, OHG. gęgini, gagani, ‘towards’; corresponding to AS. geán, ongeán, ‘against,’ E. again; OSax. gęgin and OIc. gagn, ‘against,’ appear only in compounds; in Goth. a corresponding word is wanting. Of obscure origin. —

Gegend, ‘region, neighbourhood,’ from the equiv. MidHG. (post-classical) gęgenôte, gęgende, f., which, with the variant gęgene, f., are imitations of Fr. contrée (Ital. contrada), ‘country,’ allied to Lat. contra. —

Gegenwart, ‘presence, present time,’ from MidHG. gęgenwart, OHG. gęginmwarti, f., abstract of OHG. gaganwart, ‘present,’ whence MidHG. gęgenwertec, MulHG. gegenwärtig, ‘present.’ See the adj. suffix -wärts.

gehaben, vb. in sich gehaben, ‘to fare, be (in health), behave,’ from MidHG. sich gehaben, OG. sih gihabên, ‘to hold, be (in health)’; allied to haben.

Gehege, n., ‘hedge, enclosure, precinct,’ from MidHG. gehege, n., ‘enclosure’; allied to Hag, hegen.

geheim, adj., ‘private, secret, hidden, mysterious,’ from the equiv. late MidHG. geheim, which, with heimlich, means lit. ‘belonging to the house.’

gehen, vb., ‘to go, walk, go on well, succeed,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. gên, gân (some of the inflected forms supplied by the stem gang; see Gang); comp. AS. gân (stem gâ-, from gai), E. to go, OSwed. and ODan. ga, ‘to go.’ The

assumed root ghai-, meaning ‘to go,’ cannot be positively authenticated beyond the Teut. group (yet comp. Lett. gâju, ‘I went’?). The remarkable facts that this Teut. gai, ‘to go,’ has no primit. noun derivatives in Teut., that it has supplanted the root i, which is widely diffused in Aryan, but almost obsolete in Teut. (retained, however, in the Goth. aorist iddja, AS. eóde), and that like the latter it is conjugated like verbs in mi — all these lead to the supposition that the assumed Goth. *guim, *gais, *gaiþ are contracted from the verbal particle ga (see ge-) and the old inherited îmi, îsi, îti (comp. Gr. εἶμι, Sans. êmi, êši, êti), ‘to go.’ From this explanation it follows that gehen is fundamentally identical with Lat. îre, Gr. ἰέναι, Sans. root i, Lith. eíti. OSlov. iti, ‘to go’ (see eilen). For a similar blending of a verbal particle and an old vb. comp. folgen, fressen.

geheuer, adj., ‘secure against anything uncanny,’ from MidHG. gehiure, ‘gentle, graceful, free from anything uncanny’; comp. OHG. and OSax. unhiuri, ‘dreadful, terrible,’ AS. hŷre (heóre), ‘friendly, mild,’ OIc. hýrr, ‘mild.’ Indubitable cognates in the non-Teut. languages are wanting; perhaps Sans. çakrá, ‘strong’ (of deities) is allied, so that OHG. -hiuri would represent hegwro- (Aryan keqró-).

Gehren, m. (dial.), ‘lap,’ from MidHG. gêre, yêro, m., ‘wedge-shaped piece of stuff or land, lap’; corresponding to AS. gâra, ‘piece of stuff,’ E. gore, OIc. geire, in the same sense; a deriv. of Ger. For the evolution of meaning comp. Franse, Schoß. — From the OG. word the Rom. cognates, Fr. giron and Ital. gherone, ‘lap, train (of a dress),’ are derived.

Geier, m., ‘vulture, carrion kite,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. gîr, m., akin to LG. gier. On account of the early appearance of the G. word we cannot assume that it was borrowed from the Rom. cognates, Ital. girfalco, Fr. gerfaut (whence MidHG. gir-valke is derived), or from Lat. Gr. gyrare, ‘to wheel round.’ The connection between OHG. gîr with OHG. gī̆ri, MidHG. gîre (geier still occurs in ModHG. dials.), ‘greedy, covetous,’ and the Teut. root gī̆r, ‘to covet,’ presents no difficulty. Geier is lit. ‘the greedy bird.’ See gern, Gier.

Geifer, m., ‘slaver, drivel, wrath,’ from the equiv. late MidHG. geifer, m. (15th cent.), whence also geifern, ModHG. geifern. Origin obscure.