garsecg

Old English

The Pacific Ocean's floor as taken by NASA

Etymology

Uncertain. Almost always analyzed as a compound of gār +‎ seċġ, but there is significant disagreement about how to interpret these components. gār is usually glossed as "spear," but the sense "tempest" has been suggested, and Holthausen dubiously connected it to Old English gānian (“to gape”), Sanskrit vihayas (“atmosphere”). seċġ may be glossed several ways:

• "sword" appears least likely.
• "sedge" has been suggested (e.g. by Grimm), but the derivation is opaque.
• "man; warrior" is perhaps most popular; in this case the sense is "the ocean personified as a warrior," but attempts find links to spear-wielding water deities (Bosworth-Toller suggests Neptune) have not yielded definitive results.
• Some Latin-Old English glossaries have possible variants of secg glossing "sea" (e.g. the Épinal-Erfurt glossary has segg and seeg).

William Redbond suggested a possible loan from Welsh mor-gaseg (“ocean”), related to modern caseg. Dahlman suggested analysis as gārs (“world's”) +‎ eċġ (“edge”), but this cannot be correct as ecg is a feminine jō-stem. See.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɑːrˌsejj/, [ˈɡɑːrˌsed͡ʒ]

Noun

gārseċġ m

1. ocean, sea

Declension

Declension of garsecg (strong a-stem)

Case	Singular	Plural
nominative	gārseċġ	gārseċġas
accusative	gārseċġ	gārseċġas
genitive	gārseċġes	gārseċġa
dative	gārseċġe	gārseċġum

See also

• ēa (“river”)
• mere (“lake”)
• sǣ (“sea”)
• strēam (“stream”)