Gott

Forms

Gott m (genitive Gottes or Gotts, plural Götter, feminine Göttin)^[1] Adelung records a dative Gotte when the word has an article or adjective (dem ewigen Gotte), though the ending was often left off.^[2] In older printing the name of God was sometimes set as GOtt.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German got, inherited from Old High German got, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *god, inherited from Proto-Germanic *gudą (“god”).^[3][1][4] The same word is Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌸 (guþ), Old Norse guð or goð, Old English god (now English god), Old Saxon god and Old Frisian god.^[3][5][4][6] The Germanic word was originally a neuter, covering male and female deities alike, and became masculine when it was applied to the Christian God.^[3][5][7] In Gothic it is usually abbreviated, after the Greek and Latin sacred names.^[6]

Its further origin is uncertain.^[7][8][4] Kluge takes it as an abstract noun with ⟨t⟩ from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰew- (“to pour”), as in Sanskrit जुहोति (juhóti, “sacrifices, pours butter into the fire”), Avestan zaotar- (“priest”) and Ancient Greek χέω (khéō, “I pour”): first “libation, sacrifice”, then the god honoured by it.^[3] Pfeifer, the Grimms' dictionary and Köbler prefer a past participle Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰutóm “the one invoked”, from a root meaning “to call, invoke”, found in हूत (hūtá, “called, invoked”), Old Church Slavonic зъвати (zŭvati, “to call”) and Lithuanian žavė́ti (“to bewitch”).^[5][9][10] Both explanations bring in the priestly title Gaulish gutuater of the Gauls, read as “father of the libation” or “master of the invocation”.^[3][5]

Kroonen finds neither convincing: the link with the priest's title is possible only through the meaning “pour”, and a derivation from the root “to invoke” would be expected to give a long vowel.^[4][1] He suggests a connection with Old Church Slavonic говѣти (gověti, “to revere”) instead.^[4] Within Germanic the word is related to Old Norse goði (“priest”), Gothic 𐌲𐌿𐌳𐌾𐌰 (gudja, “priest”) and Götze.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German got is recorded from about 765 in glosses, and is very frequent in the Old High German texts (Köbler counts about 3,000 instances), meaning “God”.^[10][6] Schützeichel also lists kebriefte gota “those raised to gods”, gote lob for “hallelujah” and were got “by God”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Pfeifer notes that the Germanic plural meant the powers of fate, and that under Christian influence the word came to mean the Christian God throughout the Germanic languages.^[5][7] In Middle High German it was also used of Christ, and of idols.^[12][13] In Old Norse the forms were divided, goð being used mainly of the heathen gods and guð of the Christian God.^[6] Joseph Justus Scaliger regarded the word as the mark of the Germanic languages as early as 1599.^[9]

The plural Götter is used of polytheistic gods, and the classical writers set them against Christianity, as in Goethe's Prometheus and Schiller's Die Götter Griechenlands.^[8] The word can also be applied to a revered person, and colloquially to someone very talented or beautiful.^[8][14] Many derivatives are old: göttlich (8th century), Gottheit (about 1000, for Latin divinitas), Göttin (about 1000, umlauted since the 14th century), Gottesfurcht (15th century, after Latin timor dei) and vergöttern (17th century).^[5][7]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German got in glosses.^[10]
• 8th century – gotlīh “divine” is recorded.^[5]
• 9th century – the phrases gotes hūs “house of God” and zi gotes thionōste “for the service of God”.^[5]
• c. 1000 – gotheit “divinity” and gutin “goddess”.^[5]
• 14th century – the umlauted göttin.^[5]
• Late 15th century – Gottesfurcht, a loan translation of Latin timor dei.^[5][7]
• 16th century – Gott sei Lob.^[5]
• 1599 – Scaliger calls the word the hallmark of the Germanic languages.^[9]
• 17th century – vergöttern and gottesfürchtig.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. God, the one supreme being of monotheism, especially Christianity: Gott hat die Welt erschaffen.^[15][1]
2. A god, one of several beings of polytheistic religions: die Götter Griechenlands.^[1][14][8]
3. (colloquial) Someone admired as exceptionally talented or beautiful: Am Klavier ist er ein Gott.^[14]

Word family

• Göttin
• göttlich
• Gottheit
• vergöttern
• Gottesdienst
• Gottesfurcht
• Gotteshaus
• gottlob
• gottlos
• Abgott

Related words

• Götze
• English god

Usage notes

Many proverbs and fixed phrases contain the word: Der Mensch denkt, Gott lenkt (which Brecht turned round in Mutter Courage),^[8] hilf dir selbst, so hilft dir Gott, Gottes Mühlen mahlen langsam (wrongdoing is punished in the end) and the oath so wahr mir Gott helfe.^[15] Gottlob “thank God” was shortened from Middle High German gote lop, from the Old High German formula gilobōt sī got.^[5][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 2, 756
3. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 368
4. ^ a b c d e f Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 534
7. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 333
8. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 8, 1017
10. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 130
12. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1051
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
15. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag