v. (wk.)
Cl past pl. ʒeʒed
‘cry (as wares), cry (for), shout’
(Modern English )There were some early attempts to derive this v.from ON, cp. OIcel geyja ‘to bark; scoff at, blaspheme’ (thus e.g. Knigge 89, Kullnick 15), but (unless we assume sound-substitution) ME initial palatal /j/ cannot reflect /ɡ/ in the Norse word, and it is now normal to assume a native cognate OE Angl. *gēgan < PGmc *gau-jan- (cp. further WFris geije ‘to cry out’). Bj. (DP) observes moreover that the sense of the ON word is distinct from those found in ME. The same root, PGmc *gau-, has very plausibly been identified in the OE poetic n. gēaþ ‘folly, vanity, extravagance’ (see DOE), cp. OIcel gauð ‘barking’.
PGmc Ancestor
*gau-jan-
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
geyja ‘to bark; scoff at, blaspheme’
(ONP geyja (vb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far goyggja, Icel geyja, Norw gøya, Dan gø, Sw gö
OE Cognate
cp. gēaþ (n.) ‘folly, vanity, extravagance’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CCC1a
MED’s secure citations come almost entirely from the SWM (esp. the AW tradition), together with a handful of occurrences in alliterative contexts (inc. Harley 2253 and c1440(?a1400) Morte Arth.(1) (Thrn)), plus a1325(?c1300) NPass.(Cmb Gg.1.1).
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 67, 1215; Cl 846