Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/270

 264 Klaeber sych bydden unde myt em gewerden, Seibertz, Westf. Urk. 435 (quoted from Schiller-Liibben's Dictionary). Cf. the examples of eens (eyns) gewerden, footnote 26. Note. The meaning 'agree,' hence 'get along (with),' 'manage' is well illusliated in modern dialectal usage (Ripuar- ian, near the Low Franconian border): ich sal wat met uch gewede, 'ich werde wohl mit euch fertig werden.' (Aachen.) 34 Old High German Otfrid furnishes several examples, 35 in which the basic idea of 'please,' 'seem good' has taken on the specific meanings of 'enjoy' and 'desire.' That this development has been assisted by association with werd (i.e., in the sense of 'dear'), is to be admitted as a possibility, but it is clearly wrong to assert a direct etymological connection of the verb with that adjective (so Schade, Wackernagel, and Braune in his Lesebuch ). 3G The identity of this giwerdan with the impersonal OS. giwerdan, OE. geweorfian is further attested by Otfrid's use of giwurt, ' oblectatio, ' which runs parallel to wurt, 'fatum, 'OS. wurd, OE. wyrd, i.e. formations carrying out the meaning of werdan, etc. Meaning 'enjoy' (cf. c.): giwerdan mohta siu (sie) es tho, Otfrid II 8.9, IV 9.20; so sie thes brotes giward, III 6.44. Meaning 'desire' (cf. d.): ob inan giwurti, thaz er heil wurti, III 4.20. III. geweorfian l<zian and its cognates. A special application of the genuinely idiomatic construc- tion of geweordan with accusative of the person and genitive of 84 Wunderlich, in the Grimm Worterbuch IV, 1.3, 4852. 35 Cf. Hubbard, I.e., 123. 36 Also Erdinann, in his Syntax der Sprache Otfrids II, 123 yields to that etymology when he translates giwirdit by 'es erfiillt mich mit dem Gefiihle des Wertes oder der Wiirde.' On the other hand, there is no doubt about the relation between werd and OHG. giwerdon (giwerden) 'sich herablassen etwas zu tun,' 'dignari,' 'gnadig gestatten,' MHG. gewerden (w.v.), M. Du. gewerden (w.v.), OS. giwerVon (used impersonally, Hel. 2449, and personally, Hel. 4040: giwerfiot thinan willeon), though in the second example from the Heliand we might suspect some contact with giwerfian, cf. the last two instances from Laja- mon. Whether the first quotation under MLG. gewerden = 'geweren' (Schiller- Liibben) should be included in this group, I am unable to ascertain.