𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽

Forms

𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (qiman), a strong verb of the fourth class.^[1][2][3] Its principal parts are 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (qiman), the preterite 𐌵𐌰𐌼 (qam), the preterite plural 𐌵𐌴𐌼𐌿𐌽 (qemun) and the past participle 𐌵𐌿𐌼𐌰𐌽𐍃 (qumans).^[4][5] The commonest recorded forms are 𐌵𐌰𐌼 (qam, 72 times), 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌸 (qimiþ, 43 times), the present participle qimands (33 times), 𐌵𐌴𐌼𐌿𐌽 (qemun, 32 times) and the infinitive (28 times), in the Wulfila project's count.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”),^[6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem-.^[6][8] Its Germanic cognates are Old Norse koma, Old English cuman, Old Frisian kuma, Old Saxon cuman and Old High German queman.^[9][10][7] Kroonen reconstructs *kweman- ~ *kuman-, with two ablaut variants, and thinks the Germanic verb more likely continues a root aorist than an old athematic present;^[10] Lehmann, following Meillet, takes it to have been athematic at first and thematic in all the dialects.^[11] Outside Germanic it is related to Latin veniō (“to come”), Ancient Greek βαίνω (baínō, “to go”) and the Tocharian verbs kum- and käm-.^[10][7][6]

Attestation

The Wulfila project counts 304 tokens, in all four Gospels, in most of the Pauline epistles, in the Nehemiah fragment and in the Skeireins;^[5] Köbler counts 287 records, also from the Gothica Bononiensia.^[5][3] Most are in manuscript CA, the rest in A, B, D, E and Lat5750.^[5] The first record in canonical order is Matthew 5:17.^[5][12] In PROIEL's alignment it renders Ancient Greek ἔρχομαι (érkhomai) 235 times out of 271, and less often ἥκω (hḗkō), παραγίγνομαι (paragígnomai), εἰσέρχομαι (eisérkhomai) and γίγνομαι (gígnomai).^[12] Matthew 5:17 reads ni qam gatairan ak usfulljan, "I did not come to destroy but to fulfil".^[13]

Meanings

1. to come, to arrive, also figuratively; for ἔρχομαι^[1][3][12]
2. in the preterite, to be present, to be there^[14][3]

Word family

• 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (anaqiman, “to come upon”)
• 𐌱𐌹𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (biqiman, “to come upon, befall”)
• 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌰𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (fauraqiman, “to go before”)
• 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (fraqiman, “to spend, consume”)
• 𐌲𐌰𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (gaqiman, “to come together”)
• 𐌼𐌹𐌸𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (miþqiman, “to come along”)
• 𐌿𐍃𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (usqiman, “to kill”)
• 𐌵𐌿𐌼𐍃 (qums, “coming, arrival”)
• 𐌲𐌰𐌵𐌿𐌼𐌸𐍃 (gaqumþs, “assembly, synagogue”)

Usage notes

Streitberg classes it as a perfective simple verb.^[1] In usqiman "to kill" the compound has moved far from the meaning of the simple verb.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. qiman
2. ^ Braune, Wilhelm; Heidermanns, Frank (2004), Gotische Grammatik, mit Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis, 20th ed., Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte A 1, Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. 291
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. qiman
4. ^ Miller, D. Gary (2019), The Oxford Gothic Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f 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
6. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽
7. ^ a b c Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 227
8. ^ Uhlenbeck, C. C. (1900), Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Müller, p. 119
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Gotisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 78
10. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 316
11. ^ 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. qiman
12. ^ a b c 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
13. ^ 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 5:17
14. ^ Stamm, Friedrich Ludwig; Heyne, Moriz (1920), Ulfilas oder die uns erhaltenen Denkmäler der gotischen Sprache: Text, Wörterbuch und Grammatik, 13th–14th ed. by Ferdinand Wrede, Paderborn: Schöningh, p. 459
15. ^ Bucsko, Ferenc (2008), Preverbs in Gothic, PhD thesis, University of Georgia