Jump to content

Reconstruction talk:Proto-Germanic/hailagaz

Page contents not supported in other languages.
Add topic
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Latest comment: 7 years ago by Anglom in topic Etymology and meaning

Etymology and meaning

[edit]

This word was probably derived from *hailaz/hailiz-, an s-stem meaning "omen, portent". So the original meaning was probably more "ominous, portentous", which makes sense because the main word for "holy" was *wīhaz.

On a side note, this does show that z-stems were starting to or were well on their way to making derivations without the *-iz- element, otherwise we would expect *hailiz(a)gaz. Anglom (talk) 16:40, 10 January 2018 (UTC)Reply