𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃

Forms

𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards), a masculine i-stem noun.^[1][2][3] The recorded forms are 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌰 (garda, 51 times), 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳 (gard, 30), 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (gards) and 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gardins, seven each), 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌹𐌼 (gardim, twice) and 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌹𐍃 (gardis, once), in the Wulfila project's count.^[4] Casaretto sets up Gothic *gard-i-, beside an a-stem *gard-a- in North and West Germanic.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *gardaz (“enclosure”),^[6][7][8] with the cognates Old Norse garðr, Old English geard, Old Saxon gard and Old High German gart (“enclosure”).^[8] Kroonen derives the o-stem from the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰerdʰ-, whose original sense "circle" he finds preserved in Faroese.^[8] Wiktionary gives the preform Proto-Indo-European *gʰórdʰos.^[6] Orel relates Tocharian B kerccī (“palace”) in Tocharian B, and Albanian gardh (“fence”).^[9] Feist instead traces the Germanic word, Latin hortus (“garden”), cohors and Old Irish gort to a stem from a root meaning "enclose", and he takes Lithuanian gardas (“pen”) and the Old Church Slavonic word for "enclosure, town" as loans from Germanic.^[10] Holthausen treats the Lithuanian and Slavonic words as cognates.^[11] Lehmann describes the word as the house as fenced property, and reports Meringer's view that it was the wattled house.^[12] Feist calls Meringer's combination very uncertain.^[10]

Attestation

The Wulfila project counts 98 tokens (47 of them ambiguous), mostly in Luke (36) and Mark (27), the rest in Matthew, John, 1 and 2 Corinthians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Nehemiah; 77 are in manuscript CA, the others in A (12), B (8) and D (1).^[4] Köbler counts 94 attestations.^[7] The first in canonical order is Matthew 5:15 in CA.^[4] In the PROIEL texts it renders Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos) 44 times and οἰκία (oikía) 40 times, and once each προαύλιον (proaúlion) and αὐλή (aulḗ).^[13] At Matthew 8:6: 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌼𐌰𐌲𐌿𐍃 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌹𐌸 𐌹𐌽 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌰 (þiumagus meins ligiþ in garda), "my servant lies in the house".^[14]

Meanings

1. house, household, family (for Ancient Greek οἶκος (oîkos), οἰκία (oikía))^[1][7][6]
2. court, courtyard; praetorium (for Ancient Greek αὐλή (aulḗ))^[3][7]

   gards bidōs, house of prayer (for οἶκος προσευχῆς)^[7]

   faur gard, the forecourt (for Ancient Greek προαύλιον (proaúlion))^[7]

Word family

• 𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍄𐌹𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (aurtigards, “garden”)
• 𐌼𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌿𐌽𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (midjungards, “the inhabited world”)
• 𐍅𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃 (weinagards, “vineyard”)
• 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌹 (þiudangardi, “kingdom”)
• 𐌹𐌽𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌾𐌰 (ingardja, “member of the household”)
• 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌳𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (gardawaldands, “master of the house”)

Borrowings into other languages

• Albanian: gardh, which Wiktionary derives from Proto-Albanian but also calls a possible loan from gards^[6]

Related words

• 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐌰 (garda, “pen, enclosure”)
• 𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌳𐌰 (gairda, “girdle”)

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. gards
2. ^ Braune, Wilhelm; Heidermanns, Frank (2004), Gotische Grammatik, mit Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis, 20th ed., Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte A 1, Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. 278
3. ^ a b Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 70
4. ^ a b c De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be
5. ^ Casaretto, Antje (2004), Nominale Wortbildung der gotischen Sprache: Die Derivation der Substantive, Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌳𐍃
7. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. gards
8. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 169
9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 126
10. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. gards
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Gotisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. gard-s
12. ^ 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. gards
13. ^ Haug, Dag T. T. et al., PROIEL Treebank: The Gothic Bible (gothic-nt), 2023 release, Pragmatic Resources in Old Indo-European Languages, University of Oslo
14. ^ De Herdt, Tom (2004–2026), Project Wulfila: digital edition of the Gothic Bible with lemma and morphological annotation, data release 2026-09-03, wulfila.be, p. Mt 8:6