Gepanta - *gabideis ??

[thiudans]

Hails!

This OE reference is very good in its alluding to fate. When
rebuilding this word I had only thought of Gabid- as "Given", which
seems too unbound and meaningless and is furthermore wrong of me,
since I had thought only of the verb derivation (i.e. from giban), not
the noun derivation (i.e. from giba or, as here, ? *gab(j)-), which in
pp. would mean "gifted" (having been gifted or provided with or made
into a gift). But this holy meaning is really more believable. Still
the oldest Greek and Roman spellings, which are I grant infamously
shaky, would give us something like /gE:pajdes/ or /gepantas/...

cf. 
> > greek word for Gepids (Gepaides) shows a long e (eta) on the first 
> > syllable and an acute tone or accent on the penult.

-Matthew

--- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "llama_nom" <600cell at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> 
> Gepidae (Jordanes chapters 33, 73-74, 94-97, 99, 100, 113, 133).
> Go. *Gibidans, masculine an-stem pl. (OE Gifðas, Gefðas).
> 
> Could the original meaning have been `the fortunate ones'?  cf. OE 
> gifeðe `granted (by fate); fate, chance'; and the tribal name of one 
> group of Vandals, the Silingi = *Selingos?, perhaps related to Go. 
> sels "good", OE sælig, OIc. sæll "fortunate".  Maybe the insulting 
> meaning "slow" applied to the Gepids could be exaplained as a 
> euphemistic development parallel to English 'silly' 
> formerly "simple/innocent", before that "blessed" and "fortunate".
> 
> Just a wild guess.
> 
> 
> --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "akoddsson" <konrad_oddsson@> 
> wrote:
> >
> > Hails Thiudans.
> > 
> > --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, "thiudans" <thiudans at y...> wrote:
> > >
> > > More on Gepanta - Gepid:
> > > 
> > > Cleasby/Vigfusson have an entry:
> > > 
> > > "GAUFA, að, (and gauf, n., gaufari, a, in.), to saunter, be 
> > sluggish, freq. akin to gafi, cp. Goth, gepanta in a reference by 
> > Jornandes -- iiam lingua eoruin 'pigra' gepanta dicitur, whence ' 
> > Gcpidi, ' the name of an ancient Teut. people."
> > > 
> > > Gaufa in OIc. should have shown Go. *gaupan - gaupanda. Or? The 
> > greek word for Gepids (Gepaides) shows a long e (eta) on the first 
> > syllable and an acute tone or accent on the penult.
> > 
> > > Any other explanations for the Gepids' name?
> > 
> > Later scholar (Jon Helgason, for example) reconstruct the norse 
> form 
> > as *gefdar or *gefdir (if an i-stem), citing OE, etc.. Now, on the 
> > surface at least, this seems more realistic to me. The name seems 
> > probable, at least to me, as from what we know about germanic folk 
> > in general from these times, they placed high value on generosity 
> > and nobility, praising high ranking folk for being generous and 
> mild 
> > with food, gifts (weapons, jewelry, etc.). Whether right or wrong, 
> > *gefdar or *gefdir would seem a culturally appropriate name. 
> > 
> > One issue which puzzles me is the reconstruction of the goths' 
> name 
> > for their own tongue, *gutiska. On the face of it, this adjectival 
> > form would seem inappropriate when compared with other germanic 
> > tongues, where a fem. on-stem is prefered (nominal). Would not the 
> > form *gutisko (oblique -on) make more sense? 
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Konrad
> > 
> > > --- In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, jdm314 at a... wrote:
> > > >
> > > > jdm31- at aol.com wrote:
> > > > original article:http://www.egroups.com/group/gothic-l/?
> start=785
> > > > >
> > > > > Gepanta (gepantus?) is obviously later Latin.
> > > > > Cannot find it in my Latin-Swedish dictionary.
> > > > > Am contacting an expert in the field to see
> > > > > what he comes up with.
> > > > 
> > > > 	It occurs in the Getica, which is supposed to have been 
> > > published in551 AD, so yes, it is late. Furthermore, it isn't 
> > Latin, it's a supposedly Gothic word quoted in a Latin text. 
> > Therefore it is not surprising if you cannot find it.
> > > > 
> > > > -Ïusteinus
> > > >
> > >
> >
>







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