Etymology

Formed from OE ā- + grayþe (v.).

PGmc Ancestor

*ga-raiðjan-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

greiða ‘to arrange, make ready, pay, interpret’
(ONP greiða (vb.))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far greiða, Icel greiða, Norw greida, Sw greja, Sw dial greda

OE Cognate

gerǣdan ‘to arrange’

Phonological and morphological markers

ON /ei/ < PGmc */ai/

syncope

ON fricative /ð/ < PGmc */ð/

Summary category

A1*c

Attestation

MED records several instances from the fourteenth century onwards, with no evident dialectal bias (the majority are from the Ayenbite of Inwyt).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

WA 3456

Bibliography

MED agraithen v., OED agraith v., Dance grayþe (c)(v.), Bj. 43–4, 163, 283 (DP 9)