[gothic-l] The Gothic equivalent to the Anglo-Saxon Thegn

[edmundfairfax@yahoo.ca [gothic-l]]

Dear Johann, 

 The reconstruction *druhtiz is a zero-grade nominal derived from the verbal root *dreug-, the latter from PIE *dhreugh- and so its kinship with Russian 'drug' (zero-grade) and Lithuanian 'draugas' (o-grade) is indeed generally accepted. The meaning of the verbal root *dreug- is, according to Kroonen's etymological dictionary, 'to do a duty(?)', and thus *druhtiz would appear to be mean, at least originally, a 'group bound together to meet some obligation or to perform some duty,' cf. OE 'dreogan' 'to do, work; to endure, suffer.' (The presumably secondary sense of 'to suffer, endure' in the OE verb would seem to stem from the fact that meeting an obligation is often unpleasant.)
 

 Gothic 'drauhtiwitoth' occurs only once in the phrase 'driugan drauhtiwitoth': (1T1,18) "ei driugais in thaim thata godo drauhtiwitoth" 'so that you may fight the good fight...' From this single instance, it is really impossible to discern the full semantic field of the noun.
 

 It is also possible that 'witoth' here, which otherwise normally means 'law,' may have preserved an earlier meaning hinted at in some of its cognates: OS witod (adj.) 'destined' and ON vitathr (adj) 'known, proved, marked out,' OHG wizzod (n.) 'law, order, divine will.' The word 'witoth' itself appears to be a PIE t-stem created from the root of *wid- a primary perfect root with the sense 'know, have seen', thus *wid-ot-. In light of the foregoing, drauhtiwitoth then may have meant broadly something like 'obligation to be part of a retinue, especially an armed one.'
 

 Edmund
 

---In gothic-l at yahoogroups.com, <anheropl0x at ...> wrote :

 I wouldn't have guessed their was, given my years of Latin and Germanic languages studying. Even the "source" given in the wiki looked sketchy. But I'd like to think that somehow a similar meaning was given, or something akin to a friendship, be it militaristic or not. Some attribute Russian's друг to have the same root as this *druhtiz. But as far as meaning, it's fairly obvious it didn't get so far in the Germanic languages. It remained fairly militaristic.
 Also, I do have a slight bone to pick with drauhtiwitoþ, at least the translation. Given the secondary word is witoþ, would it not be noteworthy to incorporate its meaning into the greater word? Effectively war-law, something like set rules for waging war or fighting for a particular army? Think perhaps Geneva Convention, but without it being as modern nor international of course. Or an army's or nation's particular way of waging war. What do you think?

 On Mar 20, 2015 3:12 PM, "edmundfairfax at ... mailto:edmundfairfax at ... [gothic-l]" <gothic-l at yahoogroups.com mailto:gothic-l at yahoogroups.com> wrote:
   Dear Johann,
 

 Sorry. My question was rhetorical. There is in fact no evidence. The early Germanic cognates do not allow one to reconstruct the specific meaning 'comitatus;' at best, one must settle for 'host, retinue (of some kind)', although 'comitatus' certainly could be subsumed in this broad semantic field:
 

 Gothic: drauhti-witoth 'military service'
 ON: drott 'household, people; host of the king's men, bodyguard of a king'
 OE: dryht 'people, multitude, army'
 OFris: drecht 'wedding entourage'
 OS: druht-folk 'army'
 MHG: truht 'troop, squad, platoon'
 

 Edmund
 


 

 




 



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