Talk:-head

The etymology doesn't work. How do you get from PG *haiduz to an alleged OE *hǣdu? The only possible regular continuation is OE hād – which, lo and behold, is actually attested in OE, and, in the form -hood, has ousted the competing form -head. The only explanation that actually works and makes complete sense is that ME -hēd(e) is a loan, either from Old Norse heiðr, or, even more likely, from Old/Middle Dutch, Old Saxon or Middle Low German. Note that Appendix:Proto-Germanic/haiduz also gives only OE hād as reflex. --Florian Blaschke 19:41, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

Also, note how godhead still forms a precise equation with Modern German Gottheit, not only formally but also in meaning, which supports the idea of continental influence. --Florian Blaschke 19:46, 22 November 2011 (UTC)

The alleged *hǣdu is still there, and I still don't buy it. Why is there umlaut when the word ends in -u? The reconstruction is probably simply incorrect and the obvious solution is Middle English -hed(e) really descends from an Old English *hǣde, earlier *hǣdi, which is exactly what the Proto-Germanic reconstruction *haidīn requires, anyway.

So I accept the possibility that the suffix is native, not borrowed, though godhead could easily be a borrowing or at least influenced by continental counterparts (Late Old High German got(a)heit, Middle High German got(e)heit, Middle Low German gothēt and Middle Dutch godheit), especially seeing that Old English has godhād, which corresponds to modern godhood. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 18:44, 17 September 2013 (UTC)


 * I don't see any reason to assume borrowing. You're being much too complicated. This is an unstressed suffix, so special vowel developments are expected. Maybe a front vowel did arise in Old English. But even if not, there's the simple solution of a reduced [həd], which then under secondary stress was strengthened back to [hɛd]. 88.65.40.9 09:50, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

what are adjectives here?
I see no adjectives listed, even archaic ones. I guess maybe what we mean is that when a noun modifies another noun, it used to change   -hood to -head, e.g. "my childhead home"? I just want to be sure, because I dont see what else it could mean. But I think teachers usually just call both words nouns in a phrase like that. — Soap — 02:02, 29 December 2020 (UTC)