None of the dictionaries offer a satisfactory explanation of the word
_God_. It was once commonly supposed to be related to the adjective
_good_, but Grimm long ago showed that this connection is, to say
the least, very improbable. It has also been sought to identify it
with Persian _Khodâ_, from Zend _qvadata_, Skr. _svadata_, Lat. _a se
datus_, in which the idea is that of self-existence; but this fanciful
etymology was exploded by Aufrecht. The arrant guesswork of Donaldson,
who would connect _God_ with +kalos+, and +theos+ with +tithêmi+ (New
Cratylus, p. 710), scarcely deserves mention in these days. Among the
more scientific philologists of our time, August Fick, in treating of
the "Wortschatz der germanischen Spracheinheit," simply refers _God_
to a primitive Teutonic _gutha_, and says no more about it. (Vergl.
Woerterbuch der indogermanischen Sprachen, III. 107.) He is followed
by Skeat (Etymological Dictionary, p. 238), who adds that there is
"no connection with _good_." Eduard Müller says: "So bedenklich die
zusammenstellung mit _good_, so fraglich ist doch auch noch die
urverwandtschaft mit pers. _Khodâ_ gott, oder skr. _gûdha_ mysterium,
oder skr. _guddha_ purus; Heyne: 'als sich verhüllender, unsichtbarer,
vgl. skr. _guh_ für _gudh_ celare.'" (Woerterbuch der englischen
Sprache, p. 456.)
Max Müller has much more plausibly suggested that _God_ was formerly a
heathen name for the Deity, which passed into Christian usage, like the
Latin _Deus_. (Science of Language, 6th ed. II. 317.) Following this
hint, I suggested, several years ago (North Amer. Review, Oct. 1869,
p. 354), that _God_ is probably identical with _Wodan_ or _Odin_, the
name of the great Northern deity, the chief object of the worship of
our forefathers. This relation of an initial _G_ to an initial _W_ is
a very common one; as for example _Guillaume_ and _William_, _guerre_
and _war_, _guardian_ and _warden_, _guile_ and _wile_. The same thing
is seen in Armorican _guasta_ and Ital. _guastare_, as compared with
Lat. _vastare_, Eng. _waste_; and in the Eng. _quick_, Goth. _quivs_,
Lat. _vivus_. In Erchempert's Historia Langobardorum, 11, Pertz, III.
245, we find _Ludoguicus_ for _Ludovicus_. Not only is this relation
a common one, but there are plenty of specific instances of it in the
case of _Wodan_. In Germany we have the town names of _Godesberg_,
_Gudenberg_, and _Godensholt_, all derived from _Wodan_. In the
Westphalian dialect, _Wednesday_ ("day of Wodan") is called _Godenstag_
or _Gunstag_; in Nether-Rhenish, _Gudenstag_; in Flemish, _Goenstag_.
See Thorpe, Northern Mythol. I. 229; Taylor, Words and Places, 323; and
cf. Grimm, Gesch. der deutschen Sprache, 296. The Westphalian Saxons
wrote both _Guodan_ and _Gudan_. _Odin_ was also called _Godin_ (Laing,
Heimskringla, I. 74), and Paulus Diaconus tells us that the Lombards
pronounced _Wodan_ as _Guodan_. In view of such a convergence of
proofs, I am surprised that attention was not long ago called to this
etymology.
Wodan was originally the storm-spirit or animating genius of the wind,
answering in many respects to the Greek Hermes and the Vedic Sarameyas.
See my Myths and Myth-makers, 19, 20, 32, 35, 67, 124, 204; and cf.
Mackay, Religious Development of the Greeks and Hebrews, i. 260-273.