Gepanta - *gabideis ??

[llama_nom]

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 at ...> 
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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