Talk:wefte

English weft, OE wefta, ON veftr

While OE wift < PGmc *wiftiz, there are other forms with -e- rather than -i-:

OE wefta (masc. an-stem, listed as such in Bosworth-Toller), apparently < PGmc *weftô (unless a neologism in OE); and

ON veftr (masc.), apparently < PGmc *weftaz (unless a neologism in ON).

In any case, Modern English weft appears to be derived from OE wefta, a parallel derivation to PGmc *wiftiz.

For what it's worth, LägLoS, Bd. III, S. 403-404 endorses three variants, wiftiz, weftô and weftaz; I understand their aim is to hypothesise a wide variety of possible forms, to explain borrowings into Finnic.

Judging by the pattern of noun derivation in PGmc, *wiftiz is the oldest (and genuinely PGmc) form. The question then becomes one of how far back do we take OE wefta and ON veftr?

2001:8003:3417:5F00:40FA:80E9:7B97:C22D 04:04, 6 July 2023 (UTC)