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The English word ''God'' continues the Old English ' (' in Gothic, ' in modern Scandinavian, ' in Dutch, and ''ドイツ語:Gott'' in modern German), which is thought to derive from Proto-Germanic '' *''. ==Germanic etymology== The Proto-Germanic meaning of '' *'' and its etymology is uncertain. It is generally agreed that it derives from a Proto-Indo-European neuter passive perfect participle '. This form within (late) Proto-Indo-European itself was possibly ambiguous, and thought to derive from a root '' *'' "to pour, libate" (Sanskrit ', see '), or from a root '' *'' ('' *'') "to call, to invoke" (Sanskrit '). Sanskrit ''hutá'' = "having been sacrificed", from the verb root ''hu'' = "sacrifice", but a slight shift in translation gives the meaning "one to whom sacrifices are made." Depending on which possibility is preferred, the pre-Christian meaning of the Germanic term may either have been (in the "pouring" case) "libation" or "that which is libated upon, idol" — or, as Watkins〔Watkins, Calvert, ed., The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000.〕 opines in the light of Greek "poured earth" meaning "tumulus", "the Germanic form may have referred in the first instance to the spirit immanent in a burial mound" — or (in the "invoke" case) "invocation, prayer" (compare the meanings of Sanskrit '') or "that which is invoked". The earliest uses of the word God in Germanic writing is often cited to be in the Gothic Bible or Wulfila Bible, which is the Christian Bible as translated by Wulfila (a.k.a. Bishop Ulfilas) into the Gothic language spoken by the Eastern Germanic, or Gothic Tribes. The oldest parts of the Gothic Bible, contained in the Codex Argenteus, is estimated to be from the fourth century. During the fourth century, the Goths were converted to Christianity, largely through the efforts of Bishop Ulfilas, who translated the Bible into the Gothic language in Nicopolis ad Istrum in today's northern Bulgaria. The words guda and guþ were used for God in the Gothic Bible. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「God (word)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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