Year: 1972
Type: article
Abstract: bEOE WORD giir8ecg is listed in dictionaries with two meanings, "spearwarrior" or "spear-man" and "ocean," the one a simple, literal compound, the other a name, apparently derived from the first, but in some quite unobvious way.Attempts to explain this relationship have been generally implausible.Grein (s.v.) refers to several early ones, little more than imaginative guesses.Sweet's (213-5) derivation of it from gasric (in the Franks Casket inscription) requires a stretched translation and has found no acceptance.Walde-Pokorny (1.459) quotes Holthausen's surmise of a connection with the base *ghei: ghi but considers it "unsicher."Most recently, Jan de Vries has returned to this (s.v.geimi), citing the OIcel word as meaning "open sea" and taking it as related to OE gar; but as there is no evidence for a parallel form or meaning, the uncertainty remains.The firmest proposal is probably Bosworth-ToIler's (s.v.)
Source: Names
Author: Frederic G. Cassidy
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2027179762