𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐍃

Forms

𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐍃 (fōtus), a masculine u-stem noun.^[1][2][3] The Wulfila project counts 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌽𐍃 (fotuns) 23 times, 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌼 (fotum) 14, 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌹𐍅𐌴 (fotiwe) three times, 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐍃 (fotus) twice, and 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿 (fotu) and 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌾𐌿𐍃 (fotjus) once each.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *fōts (“foot”),^[5] from Proto-Indo-European *pṓds,^[5] the Indo-European word for "foot", a static root noun.^[6] Germanic generalised the lengthened grade of the root.^[6] The Germanic cognates are Old Norse fótr, Old English fōt, Old Frisian fōt, Old Saxon fōt and Old High German fuoz.^[6][7] Outside Germanic it matches Latin pēs, Ancient Greek πούς (poús) and the Sanskrit and Armenian words for "foot".^[7][8] The Gothic u-stem is a remodelling of the consonant stem: Feist and Wiktionary explain it from the accusative singular and the accusative and dative plural, whose endings the consonant stems shared with the u-stems.^[9][5] Lehmann notes that the other Germanic languages point to the root noun, as the Old English plural fēt shows.^[10]

Attestation

The Wulfila project counts 44 tokens and Köbler 41 records, in all four Gospels and in Romans, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians and 1 Timothy, in manuscripts CA, A and B.^[4][2] In the Gospels and Epistles PROIEL aligns it with Ancient Greek πούς (poús) 38 times.^[11] The first record in canonical order is the genitive plural fotiwe at Matthew 5:35 in CA: fotubaurd ist fotiwe is ("it is the footstool of his feet").^[4][12]

Meanings

1. The foot, for πούς.^[1][2][11]
2. In du fotum with the genitive, at someone's feet.^[13]

Word family

• 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌹 (fōtubandi, “fetter for the feet”)
• 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (fōtubaurd, “footstool”)

References

1. ^ a b Streitberg, Wilhelm (1910), Die gotische Bibel, II: Gotisch-griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. fotus
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Gotisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. fōtus
3. ^ Regan, Brian T. (1974), Dictionary of the Biblical Gothic Language, Phoenix: Wulfila House, p. 61
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. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. 𐍆𐍉𐍄𐌿𐍃
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 152
7. ^ a b Uhlenbeck, C. C. (1900), Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 2nd ed., Amsterdam: Müller, p. 47
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. s.v. *fōtz
9. ^ Feist, Sigmund (1939), Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der gotischen Sprache, 3rd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. fotus
10. ^ 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. fotus
11. ^ 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
12. ^ 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 5:35
13. ^ Lambdin, Thomas O. (2006), An Introduction to the Gothic Language, Eugene, Or.: Wipf and Stock, p. 174