gefa

Forms

gefa (singular past indicative gaf, plural past indicative gáfu, past participle gefinn) (strong)^[1] Proto-Norse first person present gibu “I give” on the bracteate DR IK98, dated 400–650.^[2] Proto-Norse past gAf on the Stentoften stone, dated 520/530–700 after Imer.^[3] Viking Age runic kiuai (subjunctive gefi)^[4] and kafu (plural past gáfu).^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Germanic *gebaną (“to give”),^[1][6] a strong verb of the fifth class with the cognates Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (giban), Old English giefan, Old Frisian jeva, Old Saxon geban and Old High German geban.^[6][7][8] Proto-Norse runic inscriptions already have the first person present ⟨gibu⟩ and the past ⟨gAf⟩.^[9][10]

Outside Germanic the verb is usually joined to the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰabʰ- (“to seize, take”), which is also behind Latin habeō (“to have, hold”), Old Irish gaibid (“takes, seizes”) and Lithuanian gabenti (“to carry away”).^[10][6][11] On this view the root's vowel was fitted to the Germanic strong verbs, and a verb of taking became one of giving, an exchange of opposite senses that Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon compares with other verbs of giving and taking.^[10][6] Orel adds that in Germanic it replaced the inherited verb for “give”, Proto-Indo-European *dō-.^[6] Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon calls the origin not fully clear, and de Vries treats the link with Latin as uncertain guesswork.^[10][9] Wiktionary sets up a root *gʰebʰ- (“to give, move”) instead.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Proto-Norse bracteate DR IK98 (400–650) has gibu auja “I give good fortune”,^[2] and the Stentoften stone (520/530–700 by Imer's dating) says that Haþuwulfz gaf a good year.^[3] In Old Norse proper IcePaHC's first text with the verb is the First Grammatical Treatise, which it dates to 1150.^[12] ONP's earliest dated citations, from the Icelandic Homily Book of about 1200, have the plain sense “give”: þót ... ec gefa alla éigo mína ꜹmom “though I give all my property to the poor”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

ONP's main sense is handing something over as a gift, with the person in the dative and the thing in the accusative.^[13] From there the verb covered paying and giving in exchange (gefa við),^[14] granting life, quarter or leave,^[15][16] giving a daughter in marriage (ek var ung gefin Njáli “I was given young to Njáll”),^[15][17] and feeding animals.^[18] Used impersonally it says what comes to someone: gefr þeim byr “they get a fair wind”.^[15][18] Gefa stað meant “to stop”.^[18][1] The Christian sense “forgive” is already in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[13]

In the laws the verb is used of gifts and of the right to give them, and gefa frelsi is to free a slave.^[19] The poetry gives both things and abstractions: rings, swords and land, but also victory, peace and names.^[20]

It continues as Icelandic gefa, Swedish giva (with the newer ge) and Danish give.^[10][21] In English the Old English verb gave Middle English forms with y-, and the hard g of English give is put down to the influence of the Norse verb.^[22]

Timeline

• 400–650 – Proto-Norse gibu “I give” on the bracteate DR IK98.^[2]
• 520/530–700 – gAf “gave” on the Stentoften stone, by Imer's dating.^[3]
• 1150 – gefa and gefið in the First Grammatical Treatise, by IcePaHC's dating.^[12]
• c. 1175 – gaf in a gift inscription from Stedje church, N 384.^[23][24]
• 1200 – “give” and “forgive” in the Icelandic Homily Book.^[13]
• 1200–1225 – gefa, gaf and gefit in AM 677 4to.^[25]

Meanings

Verb

1. to give, present (something to someone).^[13][15]
2. to grant, allow: life, quarter, leave.^[15][16]
3. to pay;^[14][26] gefa við to give in exchange.^[14][26]
4. to give in marriage.^[15][18]
5. to feed (animals).^[15][18]
6. impersonal: gefr e-m byr one gets a fair wind;^[15][18] ef fœri gefr if there is a chance.^[15][18]
7. gefa stað, gefa staðar: to stop, halt.^[18][1]
8. (Christian) to forgive.^[13]

Word family

• gjǫf
• gipt
• gipta
• gáfa
• gæfa
• gǫfugr
• fyrirgefa

Descendants

• Icelandic gefa^[1]
• Faroese geva^[1]
• Norwegian Nynorsk gjeva^[1]
• Swedish giva^[21]
• Danish give^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR IK98
3. ^ a b c Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. DR 357
4. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sm 107
5. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. Sö 179
6. ^ a b c d e Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 130
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard, Altnordisches Wörterbuch, online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary database copy), p. s.v. gefa
9. ^ a b de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 160
10. ^ a b c d e Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989), Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Orðabók Háskólans, ordsifjabok.arnastofnun.is, p. s.v. gefa
11. ^ Torp, Alf (1909), Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit (Fick, Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, 4th ed., vol. 3), Göttingen, p. 125
12. ^ a b Wallenberg, Joel C.; Ingason, Anton Karl; Sigurðsson, Einar Freyr; Rögnvaldsson, Eiríkur, Icelandic Parsed Historical Corpus, version 0.9
13. ^ a b c d e f Ordbog over det norrøne prosasprog / A Dictionary of Old Norse Prose, Copenhagen, onp.ku.dk (CC BY-SA 4.0), p. s.v. gefa
14. ^ a b c Cleasby, Richard; Vigfússon, Guðbrandur (1874), An Icelandic-English Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 193
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. gefa
16. ^ a b Fritzner, Johan (1886–1896), Ordbog over det gamle norske Sprog, 2nd ed., Kristiania, p. s.v. gefa
17. ^ Möbius, Theodor (1866), Altnordisches Glossar, Leipzig: Teubner, p. 133
18. ^ a b c d e f g h Baetke, Walter (1965–1968), Wörterbuch zur altnordischen Prosaliteratur, Berlin (digital ed. Greifswald 2006), p. 187
19. ^ Hertzberg, Ebbe (1895), Glossarium, in Norges gamle Love indtil 1387, vol. 5, Christiania, p. 231
20. ^ Finnur Jónsson (1931), Lexicon Poeticum antiquæ linguæ septentrionalis, 2nd ed., Copenhagen: S. L. Møller, p. 176
21. ^ a b Hellquist, Elof (1922), Svensk etymologisk ordbok, Lund, p. s.v. giva
22. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
23. ^ Samnordisk runtextdatabas (Rundata 3.1), Uppsala universitet (inscriptions by signum), p. N 384
24. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. N 384
25. ^ Menota: Medieval Nordic Text Archive, menota.org (texts by shelfmark; CC BY-SA 4.0), p. AM 677 4to
26. ^ a b Faulkes, Anthony (2011), A New Introduction to Old Norse III: Glossary and Index of Names, 4th ed., London: Viking Society for Northern Research, p. s.v. gefa