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v. (st.)

Gaw past. sg. gef, gafe; pp. geuen Pe pres. 3 sg. subj. gyue, gef, imper. gyf, past 3 sg. gef, gaue, pp. gyuen; Cl pres 3 sg. giues, past sg gef, pp. geuen; Pat pres. 3 sg. subj. gef; Erk infin. gyfe, past 3 sg. gefe; WA geue, gefe, gyfe, pres. 3 sg. geuys, geues, gyfez, imp. sg. geue, geffe, imp. pl. gefes, pres. pl. gefe, past sg. gafe, gaffe, gaue, past pl. gafe, geuyn, gefyn, pp. geuyn

‘to give, grant; surrender; wish; show, make clear’ (Modern English give)

Etymology

cp. OIcel gefa ‘to give’, next to Dan give (early runic Dan gibu), Norw giva, Sw giva < PGmc *geƀan-; cp. OE Angl. gefan, gifan, WS giefan, gifan, gyfan, Go giban, OFris ieva, OS, OHG geban. ME forms in /i/ (and PDE give) are commonly derived from the typically OEN /i/ variant (see Bj.), but forms of OE gifan in <i> are quite common, and not confined to dial showing palatal diphthongization (Campbell §300 n.1) and these <i> variants may (as ultimately in OEN), have originated in the 2nd and 3rd sg. pres. ind. forms with regular i-mutation. Thus gif may represent a largely native form, owing only its initial /ɡ/ to ON influence. Another potential sign of ON influence on the v. is past sg. variant gafe (Gaw 1861) plausibly showing the influence of the ON pret. pl. grade in /ɑ:/ (cp. OIcel gáfum), next to the OE Angl. gǣfon (WS gēafon) which provides the source of the more common Gaw past sg. gef, but (in the absence of a spelling in <o>, which would guarantee a long vowel) this form could equally well be explained as representing the vowel of the native pret. sg., i.e. /a/ < OE Angl gæf (WS geaf), with unetymological final -e (see TGD p. 146, GDS grammar §§66(b), 73). Cp. sate.

PGmc Ancestor

*geƀan-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

gefa 'to give'
(ONP gefa (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far geva, Icel gefa, Norw giva, Dan runic gaf (past sg.), giƀu (pres. 1st sg.), Dan give, Sw giva

OE Cognate

OE Angl gefan, gifan, WS giefan, gifan, gyfan 'to give, bestow'

Phonological and morphological markers

absence of palatalization of */ɡ/

[ON /ɑ:/ < PGmc */e:/ (1)] (possibly diagnostic)

Summary category

A1*c

Attestation

Forms of the v. with unambiguous initial velar, first attested in Orrm, are mainly preferred in the N and EM throughout the ME period (see further LAEME dot maps 13558201 and 13558202, LALME dot maps 424–7). Alliteration is often the guiding criteria in the choice between gif, apparently preferred in Gaw (cp. also Erk, where as McGee (437) notes both instances alliterate), and the native-derived ʒef (see further McGee 332, TGD 1964n).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 288, 297, 365 etc.; Pe 174, 270, 543 etc.; Cl 259, 753 1326 etc.; Pat 204, 226; Erk 276, 282; WA 181, 813, 1035 etc.

Bibliography

MED yēven (v.) , OED give (v.) , HTOED , HTOED , Dance gif, Bj. 154-6, de Vries gefa, Mag. gefa, Bj-L. gi, Seebold geb-a-, Orel *ʒeƀanan, Kroonen *geban-, AEW giefan