*faigī

Reconstruction

Wiktionary reconstructs *faigī "fey, doomed to die" for Proto-West Germanic.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *faigijaz (“fey, doomed to die”).^[1] Orel reconstructs the Proto-Germanic adjective as *faiʒaz, Köbler as *faiga- or *faigja-, and Heidermanns as *faiga-.^[2][3][4] Heidermanns notes that Old Norse inflects it as an a-stem, with a single ja-stem form.^[4]

Morphology

An adjective.^[5][6] Old English fǣge is a ja-stem,^[5] and so is Old High German feigi.^[6]

Evidence

The adjective is attested in Old English fǣge, Old Saxon fēgi and Old High German feigi.^[4] Old Saxon has it in the Heliand and the Genesis fragments,^[7] and Old High German only in glosses, the earliest from the last quarter of the 8th century, and in Otfrid.^[6][8] Heidermanns finds no Old Dutch form: the Dutch word is recorded only from Middle Dutch, as veech.^[4]

Competing analyses

Whether Old Frisian has the word is disputed.^[9][10] Boutkan and Siebinga, following Tollenaere after Siebs, take Old Frisian fāy "moribund" from *fēi, *faigi-, and keep it apart from fāch "outlawed"; von Richthofen had treated the two as variants of one word.^[9] Hofmann and Popkema gloss fai "released for punishment (killing?), outlawed" and refer it to fāch,^[10] and Köbler derives it from Proto-Germanic *faiha-.^[11]

Within Germanic, EWA puts the adjective, with grammatical alternation, in the family of Proto-Germanic *faihaz (“hostile”): whoever had exposed himself to blood vengeance by a hostile deed was doomed to die.^[6] It thinks a link with Old High German fēh (“many-coloured”), in the sense "marked for death", unlikely.^[6] Orel likewise relates it to Proto-Germanic *faixaz,^[2] and Wiktionary calls it probably related to one of the words *faihaz "hostile" or "coloured".^[12]

Meanings

1. fey, doomed to die^[1][6]

EWA takes "destined to die" for the original meaning of the Proto-Germanic adjective.^[6] Old English also used it for "dead", "accursed" and "timid",^[5] and Otfrid for "insignificant, poor".^[6]

Derivatives

• *faigiþu "feyness", which Wiktionary reconstructs;^[13] Orel sets up the Proto-Germanic noun as *faiʒiþō, derived from the adjective, with Old Norse and Old English reflexes.^[2]

Reflexes

• Old English: fǣge (“doomed to die, dead, accursed, timid”)^[5]
• Old Saxon: fēgi (“fated to die, marked for death”)^[14]
• Old High German: feigi (“destined to die, insignificant, poor”)^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *faigī
2. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 89
3. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *faiga-
4. ^ a b c d Heidermanns, Frank (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der germanischen Primäradjektive, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter, p. s.v. faiga-
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fǣge
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. feigi
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altsächsisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fêgi
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. feigi
9. ^ a b Boutkan, Dirk; Siebinga, Sjoerd Michiel (2005), Old Frisian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 1, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. fach
10. ^ a b Hofmann, Dietrich; Popkema, Anne Tjerk (2008), Altfriesisches Handwörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. s.v. fai
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altfriesisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fai
12. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *faigijaz
13. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *faigiþu
14. ^ Berr, Samuel (1971), An Etymological Glossary to the Old Saxon Heliand, Berne / Frankfurt: Herbert Lang, p. 117