Words of Gothic origin of common use in Spanish

[Rydwlf]

Dear Ualarauans and all,
   
  As you know, there is a certain number of words in modern Spanish (that are of common use in speech) whose origin is Germanic. Of these, some can be traced to be of Gothic origin, be it because of a direct loan from the Visigothic people that populated Iberia during the V - VIII th centuries, be it from words in other languages (esp. Latin, Italian and German) that were incorporated into the Spanish language at other stage. I'd like to do a quick review of some of these words of Gothic origin - the list is long for me so I will focus on some of them.
   
  Most of the word list here comes from a page (http://www.geocities.com/feganuhes/vocabulario/germanico.htm) that seems to be based in Corominas, Joan and Pascual, José Antonio "Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico". As I don't have a copy of this etymological dictionary, I will present you the etymology from the DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española), along with some comments.
   
     
  I have left apart most of the words appearing in the DRAE as "of Germanic origin". Some of them may have come into Spanish through Gothic and be, by that reason, of Gothic origin; maybe the dictionary prefers to refer to the most primitive ascertained root; some of them may have come into Spanish from other source different from Gothic, but of Germanic origin. I have focused thus in those that the DRAE explicitly mentions as "of Gothic origin" or that which have drawn my attention. 
   
  There are some other words that I'd like to comment. Traditionally Spanish words of Gothic origin have been classified as "words of wartime" and "words of peace time". In this list I focus in the "words of wartime". I will comment the rest in another mail, since unfortunately I don't have enough spare time now to check all the list. Anyway I hope you find these ones interesting. Here we go!

   
  Sp. albergar, "house, shelter, harbour, lodge, nurse".
  According to the DRAE, "possibly coming from Go. *haribaírgôn, "to give shelter to a troop". I suppose the DRAE reconstruction comes from Go. harjis, "army, host" and "baírgan", "hide, keep, preserve, protect". Also in common use is the noun albergue, "house, shelter, hostal".
   
  Sp. banda, "strip, stripe, band" and also "gang, group of people".
  For the "stripe" meaning, the DRAE says "from the Old French bande, bende, and this from the Frank binda, meaning "strip, band"". For the "group" meaning, the DRAE suggests "possibly from Go. bandwō, sign, flag". 
  Sp. bandera, "flag" is derived from banda as "group of people" according to the DRAE. 
  Anyway, maybe Go. bandi ("bond"), bandwa, bandwo ("sign, token") may have had some influence in this semantic field. 
   
  Sp. bandido, "bandit" and bandir, "ban", have according to the DRAE the same origin:
  "From It. bandire, "ban", and this from Frank *bannjan, banish, influenced by Go. *bandwjan, "make a sign").
   
  Sp. escarnecer "mock, laugh at". According to the DRAE, "From escarnir, and this possibly from Go. *skaírnjan; cf. OHG skërnôn, mock".
   
  Sp. espía "spy". DRAE: "From Go. *spaíha".
   
  Sp. espuela "spur". DRAE: "From OSp. espuera, and this from Go. *spaúra; cf. ON. spori, OHG sporo).
   
  Sp. galardón "reward, prize". DRAE: "From gualardón, and this from Gc. *wĭthralaun, reward; cf. ODu. witherlôn". 
  Here the dictionary terms as "Germanic" what seems like a compound of Gothic origin (Go. láun "pay, reward" is maybe related here, and maybe withra (prep.) + láun?).
   
  Sp. ganar "win". DRAE: "Possibly from Go. *ganan, covet, lust, influenced by the Gc. *waidanjan, reap, harvest; cf. ON. gana, avidly wish, Norse gana, stare with anxiety).
  In Wright I see wái-dedja, "woe-doer, malefactor, thief", and I can't help thinking that 
  "thief", "to thieve" is related in meaning to "to lust, wish".
  Related to ganar are ganancia "gain" and gana "desire, appetite".
   
  Sp. guardar "keep, guard, watch over,save". DRAE: "(From Gc. *warda, 
  the act of search with the eyes, and this from *wardôn, pay attention; cf. OHG warta".
  From the same root come aguardar "wait for" and the noun guarda "guard" and guardia, also "guard". I find difficult not to relate Sp. guardia to Go. wardja, which pronunciation should be very similar (note the "i" sound in guardia).
   
  Sp. rapar "shave, crop hair" and also "take away suddenly something from someone". DRAE: "From Go. *hrapôn, to pull out the hair; cf. MHG raffen, Du. rapen, Eng. rap).
   
  Sp. rico "rich", riqueza "wealth, riches". DRAE: "From Go. reiks".
   
  Sp. tregua "truce". DRAE: "From Go. trĭggwa, treaty, covenant".
   
  Sp. ufano "arrogant, conceited". DRAE: "Possibly from Go. ufjô, wealth, excess; cf. Prov. ufana, conceit, Cat. ufana, luxuriance, pride".
   
  Sp. yelmo "helmet". DRAE: "From Gc. *hĕlm; cf. OHG, OE hëlm".
  Same as above, this word is surely related to Go. hilms but maybe does not come directly from Gothic.
   
  PS. For those who can get it, this paper seems to be very interesting. I bet some of you already know it, though. If you can arrange to get a copy, I'd be grateful if you could share it with me, as I wouldn't mind at all having a look at it :) Anyway I'm checking with some of the libraries in which I am a member, to check if I can get it by interlibrary loan or another way.
  http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0018-2133(195412)37%3A4%3C472%3ASWOGO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-V
  Spanish Words of Germanic Origin 
Eugen H. Mueller, Bernard M. Dulsey
Hispania, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Dec., 1954), pp. 472-477
doi:10.2307/335243

  Best regards,
  Rydwlf

 
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