To die is ‘to run (away)’
The semantics of Proto-Germanic * daw-ja- ‘to run; to die’ from a historical and comparative perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22302689 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Riccardo Ginevra (0000-0002-6731-6494, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 77 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 87-109 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-03 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0108-8416 • E-ISSN: 2212-9715 |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1075/nowele.00086.gin |
| OpenAlex | W4404963972 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 17 |
Proto-Germanic * daw-ja- , the ultimate source of English to die , is here argued to have originally been a polysemous verb meaning ‘to run; to die’, corroborating its current etymological analysis as a reflex of the Proto-Indo-European root * d h eu̯ - ‘to run’. The proposal is supported by both well-known and previously unnoticed reflexes of the verb * daw-ja- in Gothic, Old Icelandic, and Old English, as well as by further Germanic lexical items and figurative expressions. Further support is provided by a series of semantic parallels in several Indo-European traditions, which, together with the Germanic material, reflect a well-known conceptual metaphor rooted in universal human cognition
Art · Conceptual metaphor · Epistemology · Etymology · German · Germanic languages · Icelandic · Linguistics · Literal and figurative language · Literature · Meaning (existential) · Metaphor · Parallels · Verb · Engineering · History · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Medieval Literature and History · Philosophy
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| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |