The Functions of Old English Geweorfian 257 all wurthun / thiu fri an forahton. 18 (Cf. 11. 3713 f., 2924, 2243, etc.) In the minor OS. monuments only two cases of giwerthan are found. The Middle Low German use of gewerden 'werden' is illus- trated in Schiller-Liibben's Dictionary. Thus, e.g., die sundach was die irste dach, die ie gewart, Sachsensp. II, 66, 2. In Old High German giwerdan, as a variant of werdan, is entirely unknown. Even the participle giwortan is surprisingly rare; it never occurs in Otfrid, twice in Isidor, but is the pre- ferred form in Tatian. In Middle High German gewerden is sometimes met with in Middle German sources and in Gotfried's Tristan (Paul, Mittel- hochd. Gram., 6th ed., 307, n.). II. The impersonal use of geweorfian, 'convenire. ' The primitive sociative function of ge- (cf . Lat. con-) appears in full force in the interesting use of this verb, exactly as it does in the Gothic noun gawairpi ( = dpr)i>ri) and its derivatives gagawairpjan, gagawairpnan; cf. OE. gecweftan 'agree' (as in Beow. 535), Go. gaqipan, gaqiss ( = avfjupuvov) ; OE. geseon 'see each other' (cf. Mod. Phil. Ill, 263); Go.gaqiman ( = also impers. gaqimip, = avrjitev) ; Go. gabairan ( conferre). 19 Its general meaning is 'be agreeable to,' 'please,' 'suit,' or rendered personally, 'agree'; cf. German eins werden, ilber- einkommen? The agreement may consist merely in a 'con- 18 Sievers suggests the emendation alia. 19 Cf. compound nouns like OE. geneat, gesift, gefera, geselda, gefyofta, gebedda, geUytta (censors), gebeor (conviva), geleod 'fellow countryman/ (also gekwa), or Go. gasirifya (avvkK.SyiJ.os), gahlaiba (o-vffipa.Ti&Tijs, o-yptjua^TjT^s), gawatirstwa (crwepySs), galeika (<ri><r<rco/zos), gadaila (<TUJUJUCTOXOS, avyKOivuivbs) , garazna (ydruv)', OHG. gibur(o), gihlozo, gileibo, gimazzo, gisedalo, gisindo;etc. See e.g., Wilmanns, Deutsche Grammatik II, 130, 154 f.; H.AJ.van Swaay, Het prefix ga-,gi-,ge- } zijn geschiedenis, en zijn invloed op de "Actionsart," etc. (1901), pp. 33 ff. It may be noted that these formations answer in function to the later stratum of the ef(e)n- compounds like OE. ef(e)n-hlytta (censors), -degn, -fieow (conservus), -yrfeweard (coheres), -biscop (coepiscopus) ; also ef(e)n- "dware (concors), -ece (coeternus); ef(e)n-cuman (convenire), -blissian (congra- tulari), -gefeon (congaudere), ftrowian (compati), etc.; cf. also Graff, Althoch- deutscher Sprachschatz I, 96: eban-. 20 Note ^Elfric's interesting, if inexact rendering of 'convenior' by (ic eom samod cumen odde) me gewearfi in his Grammar, 218.7 ff. Unfortunately, OE.
lician cannot with any degree of certainty be cited as a semantic analogue,
