15-10-03 01:27, papastolte wrote:
> can you comment, then, on a name, such as 'GERhardt'?
> ~papa
Names with <ger> or <gar> etymologised as 'spear' date from later times
-- a few centuries after Julius Caesar's encounter with the Germani.
They are West Germanic (from Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon,
Frankish, Langobardic, etc.) or Norse. In both groups Proto-Germanic
(and proto-Northwest-Germanic) *z changed into /r/, hence *gaizaz
'spear' --> OE ga:r, OIc. geirr, OSax., OHG ge:r. <Gerhardt> reflects
OHG Ge:r-hart. The same element appears as <gais> (or <geis>, <gaes>) in
early sources, hence e.g. Goth. Harja-gais = OE Here-ga:r (both from
*xarja-gaizaz).
Piotr