[gothic-l] Reconstructing "Breath"

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

Matþaius wrote:

>we have two or three possibilities:
>
>e'thms
>andi / andw
>
>Koebler already has *andi < Gmc. *andan < PIE *an at - meaning "ghost", which
>is not quite the realm of denotation pursued here (we look for "breath"),
>though the concepts of breath and spirit are closely linked in etymologies
>often. I would not presume to extend the meaning to andi so far nor create
>andw for such a purpose in view of alternatives. Yet perhaps, when one
>translates the words "breath of life", one could be persuaded to use one
>word such as *andi or ahma as substitute for the entire phrase.
>
>We have on the other hand a word for which there is much attesting in WGmc
>languages. Unfortunately, it is usually found with a verb in these languages
>also, i.e. atmen, etc. Neither form is extant in Gothic, but not impossible.
>The addition of such a root and its forms would be a great asset to the
>vocabulary.

Dutch/German adem/atem has the same meaning as Norw. "pust".
"å puste" means "to breathe".
adem/atem as well as pust only have concrete meanings and
so does pust.

In Norwegian "ånde" is an alternative word for "pust" (breath).
For example "dårlig ånde" means "bad breath". However "ånd"
without the final "e" means spirit. "Han utåndet" = he gave up
the spirit.

In the Dutch/German area they use "geest/geist" for this same
meaning, i.e. "hij gaf de geest op" = he gave up the spirit.

In Gothic, which I assume you alraedy knew, there is "usgeisnan"
= to scare. A parallell to this word in Old Norse is "geiskafullr"
= filled with fear. According to Jan de Vries New Icelandic also
has "geiski" = 'schrecken'.

Van Dale says: "De betekenisontwikeling [van geest] zal van
schrikaanjagende geestverschijning tot ziel zijn gegaan, waarbij
het oude woord voor het niewe christelijke begrip 'spiritus' is
gebruikt."

Falk and Torp also mention the influence of the French word
"esprit" upon the modern meaning of Danish/Norwegian "aand".
For example bel-esprit --> schöngeist, skjønand.; geistreich,
geistvoll --> aandfuld. They describe this new concept as
a special spiritual gift to create new and pleasing combinations
of ideas. However, the original root of the word has to do with
breath (ON andi). They also report the Gothic forms *anþjan,
*us-anþ-, where the root is *ana "to breathe", preserved in Gothic
us-anan (=to breathe out, to die). They also point out how
this root is again related to Latin animus and anima, Greek
anemos, Sanskrit ánila- wind.

Keth



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