*dagaz

Reconstruction

The word is *dagaz in Wiktionary,^[1] *đaʒaz in Orel^[2] and *daʒaz in Fulk;^[3] Kroonen and Köbler cite it by its stem *daga-.^[4][5] Its origin is disputed.^[1][2]

Etymology

In Kroonen's analysis, as Wiktionary reports it, the word is from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeǵʰ- (“day”), a root from which a heteroclitic noun for "day" was also formed.^[1] Kroonen himself sets up a PIE thematic noun *dʰoǵʰ-o- and relates the word to *dōgera- ~ *dōgena- "a full day".^[4] Orel derives it instead from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”).^[2]

Morphology

A masculine a-stem.^[4][5][6] Ringe gives its paradigm.^[7] The nominative *daʒaz and the accusative *daʒan lost their endings in West Germanic, giving Old English dæg, Old Saxon dag and Old High German tag for both cases.^[3] In North Germanic the vowel of the ending was syncopated before the -z, as in Old Norse dagr, and West Germanic lost the final -z itself.^[8][9]

As the second member of compounds the word also had a weak n-stem form, *dagan: Old Norse eindagi, Old English āndaga "fixed day" and Old Saxon ēndago "day of death".^[10] Kroonen also notes a vṛddhi adjective *-dōga- in Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍂𐌳𐍉𐌲𐍃 (fidurdogs, “lasting four days”) and Gothic 𐌰𐌷𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌳𐍉𐌲𐍃 (ahtaudogs, “eight days old”).^[4]

Evidence

The word is attested in all three branches: Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags) in Gothic, Old Norse dagr in Old Norse, and Old English dæg, Old Frisian dei, Old Saxon dag and Old High German tac in West Germanic.^[4] The Gothic word is in Wulfila's Bible, for instance at John 9:4.^[10] Crimean Gothic has tag "dies".^[10]

Krahe cited a Proto-Norse nominative of the word,^[11] but the form read on the Einang stone, of about 400, is now taken as a misreading of the end of a personal name, so that there is no secure older runic record of the noun itself.^[12][10] Looijenga reads the start of the inscription on the Vimose buckle as a personal name, A(n)dag(az), whose second element is *dagaz, although Antonsen had read the runes differently.^[6] The word was also the name of the d-rune: on the Oberflacht strainer spoon Looijenga explains the choice of the rune by its name, which had become tag in Old High German.^[13] De Vries lists Finnish -tai as a Finnish borrowing of the Norse word.^[12]

Competing analyses

Orel equates the word with Middle Irish daig (“fire”), Lithuanian dãgas (“summer heat”) and a Sanskrit word for "heat, summer", from *dʰogʷʰos, a derivative of the root "to burn".^[2] De Vries and Lehmann also connect that root;^[12][10] Casaretto thinks the word referred either to the bright, perhaps hot, time of day or to daybreak.^[14] Wiktionary objects that the loss of the labial element would be irregular, since *dawaz would be expected.^[1] De Vries found Pokorny's link with the PIE word for "day" seen in Sanskrit अहर् (ahar) unconvincing;^[12] Kroonen, on the other hand, takes the Indo-Iranian word as continuing the same heteroclitic noun, nominative *dʰóǵʰ-r, genitive *dʰéǵʰ-n-s, which lost its initial dental early in Indo-Iranian.^[15]

Some scholars take the word as an old s-stem: de Vries, after Johansson, cites the Gothic name Dagestheus,^[12] Lehmann an old es-stem in Old English dōgor,^[10] and Fulk reports Wagner's view that *daʒaz was in origin an s-stem, citing a probably Gothic name recorded in Greek and Old High German tagarōt (“dawn”).^[3] Fulk finds no evidence outside Germanic for the quantitative ablaut this needs.^[3] Kroonen rejects deriving Old Norse dœgr and Old English dōgor from an s-stem, since they cannot be separated from the n-forms such as Old Norse dœgn.^[15]

Meanings

1. day^[4][2][1]
2. the name of the d-rune^[5][1]

Old Frisian also used the word for "lifetime", an appointed day and an assembly,^[16] and Old High German for "time".^[17] In Old High German it also became a compound element naming a span of time in the abstract, as in Old High German nackuttag (“nakedness”).^[18]

Derivatives

• *dagāną "to dawn",^[19] Orel's *đaʒōjanan.^[20]
• *dōg- "day", a nominalisation of *dōgaz "daily", itself a vṛddhi formation to *dagāną.^[21][22]
• *midjadagaz "noon",^[23] *airidagaz "days of yore"^[24] and *dauþudagaz "deathday".^[25]
• *dagawerką "a day's work"^[26] and *dagalangaz "lasting a day".^[27]
• In Orel also *aina-đaʒōn "appointed day"^[28] and *alđra-đaʒaz "day of life".^[29]

Reflexes

• Gothic: 𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags, “day”)^[30]
• Old Norse: dagr (“day”)^[12]
• Old English: dæg (“day, weekday”)^[31]
• Old Frisian: dei (“day, lifetime, appointed day”)^[16]
• Old Saxon: dag (“day”)^[32]
• Old High German: tag (“day, time”)^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dagaz
2. ^ a b c d e Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. *đaʒaz
3. ^ a b c d Fulk, R. D. (2018), A Comparative Grammar of the Early Germanic Languages, Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3, Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins
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, p. 86
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *daga-
6. ^ a b Looijenga, Tineke (2003), Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 159
7. ^ Ringe, Don (2017), From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 312
8. ^ Boutkan, Dirk (1995), The Germanic 'Auslautgesetze', Leiden Studies in Indo-European 4, Amsterdam / Atlanta: Rodopi
9. ^ Nielsen, Hans Frede (2000), The Early Runic Language of Scandinavia: Studies in Germanic Dialect Geography, Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ a b c d e f Lehmann, Winfred P. (1986), A Gothic Etymological Dictionary, based on the third edition of Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache by Sigmund Feist, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. dags
11. ^ Krahe, Hans (1963), Germanische Sprachwissenschaft I: Einleitung und Lautlehre, 5th ed., Sammlung Göschen 238, Berlin: de Gruyter, p. § 115
12. ^ a b c d e f de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 71
13. ^ Looijenga, Tineke (2003), Texts and Contexts of the Oldest Runic Inscriptions, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 251
14. ^ Casaretto, Antje (2004), Nominale Wortbildung der gotischen Sprache: Die Derivation der Substantive, Heidelberg: Winter
15. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 97
16. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. dei
17. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. tag
18. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. s.v. nackuttag
19. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dagāną
20. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. *đaʒōjanan
21. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dōg-
22. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dōgaz
23. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *midjadagaz
24. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *airidagaz
25. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dauþudagaz
26. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dagawerką
27. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *dagalangaz
28. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. *aina-đaʒōn
29. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. *alđra-đaʒaz
30. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. dags
31. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. dæg
32. ^ Tiefenbach, Heinrich (2010), Altsächsisches Handwörterbuch / A Concise Old Saxon Dictionary, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. DAG