𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹

Forms

𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi), a neuter noun of the ja-stems.^[1][2][3] Only the form 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹 (wadi) is recorded, as accusative and nominative singular.^[4][5] Krause groups it with the neuters 𐌼𐌰𐍄𐌹 (mati, “net”) and 𐌱𐌰𐌳𐌹 (badi, “bed”).^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *wadją (“pledge”),^[6][7] the word that gave Old Norse veð, Old English wedd, Old Frisian wed, Old Saxon weddi and Old High German wetti.^[7][8] Feist, Uhlenbeck, Holthausen and Orel connect Latin vas (“bail, surety”) and Lithuanian vãdas (“guarantee, surety”);^{[9][10][11][8]} Uhlenbeck held that the Gothic word is certainly not a loan but a cognate of these.^[10] Lehmann sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *wadh- with reflexes only in Latin, Baltic and Germanic.^[12] Kroonen instead derives the Germanic noun from Proto-Indo-European *Huodʰ-io- (“to lead”), a root associated with marriage.^[7] Casaretto calls the etymology uncertain: a link with 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (gawidan, “to bind together”) is possible but has problems of meaning and ablaut, the Latin and Lithuanian words are closer in meaning, and a loan from Vulgar Latin vadium, one of the proposals Feist reports, is also possible.^[13] Lehmann takes the Germanic word rather as the source of Medieval Latin vadium (“bail, security”), and reports that a loan in the other direction was proposed in 1892 and 1917.^[12] Čevelová and Blažek list it among Gothic words with Romance counterparts, deriving French gage and Catalan gatge from the Germanic noun.^[14]

Attestation

The Wulfila project counts seven tokens: 2 Corinthians 1:22 and 5:5 and Ephesians 1:14, each in manuscripts A and B, and once in the Skeireins, in manuscript E; the first is 2 Corinthians 1:22.^[4] Köbler, who counts each passage once, has four records.^[5] It renders Ancient Greek ἀρραβών (arrhabṓn) (PROIEL aligns three tokens with it), and Köbler gives Latin pignus as the Latin equivalent.^[15][5] 2 Corinthians 1:22 reads jah sigljands uns jah gibands wadi ahman in hairtona unsara, "and sealing us and giving the pledge, the Spirit, in our hearts".^[16]

Meanings

1. a pledge, earnest, security (for ἀρραβών)^[2][1][6]

Word family

• 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌱𐍉𐌺𐍉𐍃 (wadjabōkōs)
• 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌾𐍉𐌽 (gawadjōn)

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. wadi
2. ^ a b Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 173
3. ^ a b Krause, Wolfgang (1963), Handbuch des Gotischen, 2nd ed., München: Beck, p. § 123, 2
4. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. wadi
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌹
7. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 564
8. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 438
9. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. wadi
10. ^ a b Uhlenbeck, C. C. (1900), Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Müller, p. 163
11. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Gotisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. wadi
12. ^ 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. wadi
13. ^ Casaretto, Antje (2004), Nominale Wortbildung der gotischen Sprache: Die Derivation der Substantive, Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ Čevelová, Dana; Blažek, Václav (2009), Gothic loans in Romance languages, Linguistica Brunensia 57, 143–167
15. ^ 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
16. ^ 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. 2Cor 1:22