gadeltha

Grammatical information: adj.

Meaning: `good' (Il.).

Other forms: ἀκαθόν· ἀγαθόν H.; χάσιος· χρηστός H. Dor. χάϊος `noble, good' (ᾱ)

Dialectal forms: Cypr. ἀζαθος must prob. be read ἀγαθος, Egetmeyer, Kadmos 32 (1993) 145-155.

Origin: IE [Indo-European]X [probably], LW [loanword]X[probably] [413]

Etymology: Uncertain. On the one hand, one compares Germ. forms, Goth. goÞs, NHG gut, MLG gaden `fit' etc., further OCS godьnъ `pleasant', goditi `be pleasant', Russ. gódnyj `useful'. (Not with Skt. gadh- `to take, seize', gádhyā- `booty' which would have given *( ἀ)καθος). Crim. Goth. gadeltha `pulchrum'. The words must have a\/ā (long ō is morphologically excluded; Slavic cannot have h₂). Considered as a European substratum word by Beekes KZ 109 (1996). - Recently the word is analysed as *mǵh₂-dh₁-os `made great' (Panagl FS Strunk (1995)), which is semantically not convincing; or `whose deeds are great' Ruijgh 1991, FS Bartoněk, which is also semantically unconvincing. - If the variants are reliable, it could be Pre-Greek.

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