𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽

Forms

𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (itan), a strong verb of class 5 with an irregular, lengthened-grade preterite.^[1][2][3] Its principal parts are itan, ēt, ētum, itans.^[3] Only the infinitive itan and the preterite plural 𐌴𐍄𐌿𐌽 (ētun) occur; the singular ēt is set up from 𐍆𐍂𐌴𐍄 (frēt) of 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, “to devour”) at Luke 15:30.^[4][3][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *etaną (“to eat”),^[6][7] from Proto-Indo-European *h₁ed- (“to eat”),^[6][4] with cognates in Old Norse eta, Old English etan, Old Frisian eta, Old Saxon etan and Old High German ezzan.^[7][8] Outside Germanic it matches Latin edō and Ancient Greek ἔδω (édō).^[9][8][10] The lengthened grade of the preterite is also found in Lithuanian ėsti.^[9][11] The causative Proto-Germanic *atjan- (“to make eat”) gave Old Norse etja and Old High German azzen, ezzen, and in Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌰𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fraatjan, “to give away as food”).^[12][11]

Attestation

Köbler counts four records, all in Luke and in manuscript CA: itan at Luke 15:16 and 16:21, ētun at Luke 17:27 and 17:28.^[4] It renders Ancient Greek ἐσθίω (esthíō); the phrase sad itan "to eat one's fill" renders γεμίζειν τὴν κοιλίαν and χορτάζεσθαι.^[4][13] Luke 17:27 begins etun jah drugkun, "they ate and drank".^[14]

Meanings

1. To eat, for ἐσθίω.^[1][4]
2. sad itan, to eat one's fill.^[4][15]

Word family

• 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraitan, “to devour”)
• 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌰𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (fraatjan, “to give away as food”)
• 𐌿𐌶𐌴𐍄𐌰 (uzēta, “manger”)
• 𐌰𐍆𐌴𐍄𐌾𐌰 (afētja, “glutton”)

Usage notes

The Wulfila project's count of 20 tokens for this lemma includes sixteen ambiguous forms ita;^[5] Köbler and PROIEL count only the four verb forms.^[5][4][13]

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. itan
2. ^ Braune, Wilhelm; Heidermanns, Frank (2004), Gotische Grammatik, mit Lesestücken und Wörterverzeichnis, 20th ed., Sammlung kurzer Grammatiken germanischer Dialekte A 1, Tübingen: Niemeyer, p. 284
3. ^ a b c Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 90
4. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. itan
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽
7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 119
8. ^ a b Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. itan
9. ^ a b Uhlenbeck, C. C. (1900), Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Müller, p. 90
10. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Gotisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. 54
11. ^ a b 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. itan
12. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 39
13. ^ a b 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. Lk 17:27
15. ^ Schulze, Ernst (1867), Gothisches Wörterbuch nebst Flexionslehre, Züllichau: Darnmann, p. 107