26 August 2010

Gammal?

I am puzzled by the origin of the Swedish word "gammal", meaning "old". I was in Gamla Stan (the old city [of Stokholm]) the other day and also live not too far from Gamla Uppsala. Why should "gammal" mean "old"?

A possibility offered by several etymological dictionaries: it relates to the Proto-Indo-European word *ǵʰéi-mn̥- (χιών in Greek) for winter.

But I was just informed that this may not be correct.

The mystery remains.
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  1. goofy26 Aug 2010, 22:49:00

    "gammal" is related to Icelandic "gamal", Old English "gamol", and it's found in some German names like "Gamalbold". But it's certainly not the only Germanic word that hasn't been traced back to PIE.

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