*gahlaibô

Reconstruction

The word is *gahlaibô in Wiktionary,^[1] and *ga-hlaib-an- in Casaretto.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Proto-Germanic *ga- + *hlaibaz (“bread”) + *-ô, with the associative prefix and a personal ending.^[1] Casaretto calls it a bahuvrihi compound to the word for "bread", originally "one who shares his bread with someone".^[2]

Morphology

A masculine n-stem.^[2][3] The base *hlaibaz has no known etymology in Kroonen's view.^[4]

Evidence

The word is found only in Gothic and Old High German: Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (gahlaiba) and Old High German gileibo; neither Casaretto nor Wiktionary lists a North Germanic, Old English, Old Frisian or Old Saxon form.^[2][1] The Gothic word occurs twice in Wulfila's Bible, at John 11:16 and Philippians 2:25, rendering Greek words for "fellow disciple" and "fellow soldier".^[3] The Old High German word is recorded in glosses from the beginning of the 9th century.^[5] A deed from Naples has two further Gothic spellings, 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌹𐌼 (gahlaibaim) and 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌹𐌼 (gahlaibim).^[2] Streitberg set up an adjective for them, while Seebold saw only reduced vowels in the endings.^[2]

Competing analyses

It is disputed whether the word is a loan translation of Vulgar Latin compāniō (“companion”), built on the Latin word for "bread", or whether the Latin word was modelled on the Germanic one.^[2] Wiktionary takes the Latin word as the calque,^[1] while Köbler marks the Gothic word as a possible loan translation of the Latin or of the Greek word it renders.^[3] Casaretto thinks the question turns on Proto-Norse ᚹᛁᛏᚨᛞᚨᚺᚨᛚᚨᛁᛒᚨᚾ (witadahalaiban, “bread-ward”) on the Tune stone: if its second part is the same as the Gothic word, it speaks for a Germanic formation.^[2] Antonsen dates the Tune stone to 400 AD, reads its second part as the dative singular of an n-stem, Proto-Germanic *hlaib-en-i ~ -on-i, and compares the Gothic and Old High German words for "fellow, bread-sharer".^[6] Krause and Jankuhn derive the same part from Proto-Norse *hlaibaR "bread", and translate the compound "bread-ward", like Old English hlāford.^[7]

Meanings

1. messmate, comrade, companion^[1][2]

Old High German glosses also give the word as "fellow servant".^[5]

Reflexes

• Gothic: 𐌲𐌰𐌷𐌻𐌰𐌹𐌱𐌰 (gahlaiba, “companion, comrade”)^[3]
• Old High German: gileibo (“companion, comrade, fellow servant”)^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *gahlaibô
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Casaretto, Antje (2004), Nominale Wortbildung der gotischen Sprache: Die Derivation der Substantive, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ga-hlaiba
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. gahlaiba
4. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 228
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. gileibo
6. ^ Antonsen, Elmer H. (1975), A Concise Grammar of the Older Runic Inscriptions, Sprachstrukturen A 3, Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. no. 27
7. ^ Krause, Wolfgang; Jankuhn, Herbert (1966), Die Runeninschriften im älteren Futhark, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, phil.-hist. Klasse, 3. Folge 65, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, p. no. 72