Good-bye, Good Luck, and Godspeed: On linguistic (de)secularisation

Godspeed
What exactly does someone mean if they wish you Godspeed? Here's one answer, courtesy of comedian Eddie Izzard:

Source: Eddie Izzard, Circle (2000)

In fact, the speed of Godspeed refers to one of speed's other early senses, namely "success" or "(good) luck, fortune, prosperity". The OED's [1] earliest citation for Godspeed is from Tyndale's Bible translation:

[1526] Bible (Tyndale) - 2 John 10   Yf ther come eny vnto you and bringe not this learninge him receave not to housse: neither bid him God spede.
(Roughly: "If anyone comes to you who does not bring this (Christian) learning, don't let him into your house, nor wish him Godspeed.")

In such early uses of Godspeed, it appears that spede is used as a subjunctive verbal form, so that God spede means something like "may God speed (you)", i.e. "may God grant you success/prosperity".

[1597] Shakespeare Richard II i. iv. 31   A brace of draimen bid, God speed him wel.

More familiar is the use of Godspeed as a noun-noun compound, as in:

[1865] J. R. Lowell Polit. Ess. (1888) 229   Every humane and generous heart‥has wished us God-speed.

However, I have reason to suspect that examples like those from Tyndale and Shakespeare represent a later refashioning: in Old English, the verb spēdan does not seemed to have been used a causative (nor does there appear to be any other causative form of it), while the 16th century examples treat it as such (i.e. X speed Y as "may X cause Y to be speedy/to succeed"). 

Rather Old English spēdan meant simply "to speed, to be successful, to have good fortune", in which case, the later Middle/Modern English God spede should have meant something like "may God be successful" (or "may God go really fast"?!). The equivalent of "God causing someone to be successful"  in Old English required a periphrasis of the sort "God gave speed (i.e. success) to someone", as in:

Exodus 153b-4b: þær him mihtig god on ðam spildsiðe spede forgefe
("if Mighty God would grant them success on the destructive quest")

I argue that the origin of Godspeed is in fact as a compound word, formed of good+speed, which was later reanalysed as God+speed, whence back-formations like God spede (ye), with spede being reanalysed as a causative (i.e. "may (he) cause you to be successful").

Before turning to details of the analysis proper, a quick lesson on some Middle and early Modern English sound changes.

First, the Great English Vowel Shift. I won't go into all of the details here, for they don't concern us, but in general the Great English Vowel Shift raised all long vowels (and diphthongised /ī/ to /aɪ̯/ and /ū/ to /aʊ̯/). More relevantly, Old English gōd "good" (noun and adjective) became /gūd/. By other sound changes, Old English gŏd "god" (originally a neuter noun, but a masculine form was innovated in Christian contexts) became /gɔd/, which by later changes became /gɒd/ (British) or /gɑd/ (American). There were yet later changes affecting ū which caused various (and somewhat sporadic) shortenings, sometimes to /ʌ/ (e.g. blood /blʌd/ from OE blōd) and sometimes to /ʊ/, as in the case of good /gʊd/.

Additionally, in Middle English a phonological change occurred which shortened long vowels in closed syllables which preceded another syllable. For example, consider the changes which occurred in vowel of the first member of the compound words shepherd and wisdom, contrasted with the lack of change in the simplex words sheep and wise, as summarised in the Table below.

Old English	Middle English
scēap	sheep [shēp]
scēaphirde	shĕpherd
wīs	wīs
wīsdom	wĭsdom

Here the simplex words wise and sheep thus remained unaffected (and became, by the Great English Vowel Shift, /waɪ̯s/ and /ʃīp/, respectively), but the vowels of first component in shepherd ("sheep-herd(er)") and wisdom were shortened.

With these sound changes in mind, let us consider what would have happened to a hypothetical Old English compound *gōd-spēd ("good fortune, good luck"): by the Middle English closed-syllable-before-another-syllable rule, this would become /godspēd/, which would thus have become Modern English Godspeed: /gɒdspīd/ (British), /gɑdspīd/ (American). 

If this etymology is correct, then the original sense of Godspeed is good speed, in other words good luck---which makes eminent sense as a formula of well-wishing (note above in the above video clip, Izzard in fact glosses "good luck" as "Godspeed").

 In fact, an Old English form gōd-spēd is not entirely hypothetical: the adjectival form gōdspēdig is recorded in the verse "translation" of Genesis A:

Genesis A 1008b-9b: Him þa brego engla, godspedig gast geanþingade, "Hwæt...'

("The Lord of Angels (i.e. God), the "good-speedy" spirit, answered him: 'Listen...'")

[This is God addressing Cain, right after Cain utters his signature "I am not my brother's keeper" line.]

The question is how to translate godspedig (though, as is typical of Old English manuscripts, the vowel quantity is not indicated, it is fairly obvious that it is in fact gōdspēdig and not gŏdspēdig, given that it characterises God himself). If it is an adjectivalised noun-noun compound (as Bosworth and Toller treat it in their dictionary [2]), then perhaps "rich in good(ness)". But it could be based on an adjective-noun compound  gōdsped "good fortune", and thus mean something like "one is good at success, full of good fortune". 

In any case the occurrence of gōdspēdig in Old English strengthens the case for Godspeed as originating from gōdspēd "good luck" with god spēde "may God speed/grant good fortune to (you)" being a later reinterpretation (with reanalysis of spēde as causative).

Gospel

Another word which has a similar history is gospel. The original form in Old English was gōdspel "good news", glossing Latin ēvangelium, (from Greek ευαγγελιον (evangelion), from eu- "good" and angelion "message"; but which in classical Greek meant only "a reward for bringing good news," and in the plural "a sacrifice offered on receiving good news"). Now, by the Middle English shortening rule described above, gōdspel would have become gŏdspel, and thus Modern English gospel /gɒspɛl/  (ignoring the loss of the d).

However, in this case, the word was in fact actually reanalysed much earlier, at some point in Old English, as gŏdspel "news about God", apparently based on the written form (which would not have usually indicated vowel quantity), as evidenced by the forms in other Germanic language (the other Germanic peoples were evangelised by Anglo-Saxons): Old Saxon godspell, Old High German gotspell, Old Norse guð-, goðspiall.

Good-bye
Assuming the above proposed etymology for Godspeed is correct: that the original was good speed "good luck" and thus secular in nature, it is interesting to note that exactly the opposite change occurred in the case of Good-bye: an originally religious formula was secularised. Good-bye is a shortening of God be with you(/ye). Here God has been substituted by Good, presumably by analogy with/contamination by other leave-taking formulae like Good Day, Good Night, Good Morning etc.

Summary
Godspeed likely originated as a secular formula "good speed" (i.e. "good luck"), but due to a phonological change in Middle English affecting long vowels in close syllables followed by one or more syllables the vowel of the first word was shorten, becoming homophonous with God, thus giving rise to a reinterpretation of spede as a causative verb meaning "cause to succeed" and resulting in formations like God spede "God prosper (you)". While Good-bye originally had religious connotations, being a shortened form of "God be with you/ye", but by analogy to other leave-taking formula like Good Night, God was substituted by Good. 

One secular formula, go(o)d-speed, was thus reinterpreted as religious in nature, and the other, originally religious formula, go(o)d-bye, took on a secular nature.  

[Updates (04-Feb-2011):

Some new information gleaned from the comments at languagehat's blog:

I. MMcM points out that:
(1) Webster (ca. 1830) glosses godspeed as "good speed" [link to Google Books page here].
(2) Tyndale's Bible translation (whence the first citation of godspeed, see above), also includes good speed [link to Google Books page here]: "LORde God of my maſter Abrahã, ſend me good ſpede this daye, & ſhewe mercy vnto my maſter Abraham".

II. Goodspeed also appears as a surname, e.g. Ben Zimmer's maternal line [hattip Ben Zimmer], the author of the 1923 American Translation of the New Testament, Edgar J. Goodspeed [hattip John Cowan].

]

References:
[1]The Oxford English Dictionary, September 2009 rev. ed.

[2]Bosworth, Joseph and T. Northcote Toller. 1898. An Anglo-Saxon dictionary. London: Oxford University Press.

Slayed in a Slade: An etymological indulgence

My blog moniker notwithstanding, the surname Slade is not related to the verb to slay, rather it derives from the Old English word slǣd (or slēd, slēad), a neuter common noun (see Bosworth & Toller[1]:881), which can denote a range of different topographical features (the exact sense apparently depending on the dialect):

"A valley, dell, or dingle; an open space between banks or woods; a forest glade; a strip of greensward or of boggy land."

In Old English the word occurs primarily in charters (documents recording a grant of land or other privilege), used in the description of property boundaries:

Of þere ealdan dic a be graue to wulf slæde.

"From the old ditch, by the grove, to the Wolf-Slade."

[Ch 661 (Birch 1009) B15.8.312: 0018(10)]

Þanon norð on wiðig slæd.

"Thence north to the slade of willows."

[Ch 345 (Birch 550) B15.8.82: 0006 (3)]

Andlang englunga dene swa wæter wile yrnan in hæþenan byrigels a be wyrtwalan in barfodslæd and swa on timberslæd in stepacnolles scydd on hanslædes heafdan innan grenan weg.

"Along Engel's Dell, as the water runs, to the heathen burials by the lower-side of the Boarfodder Slade and so on to the Timber-Slade (wooded valley?) in the twist(?) of the high knoll in upper-side of the Rooster-Slade within the green path."

[Ch 104 (Birch 216) B15.8.15: 0002 (1)]

In Middle English it appears with similar meanings; below follow quotations where slade seems to mean something like "valley":

He dremeth ofte..hou he clymbeth up the banckes And falleth into Slades depe.

"He dreams often...how he climbs up the banks and falls into the slade's deep."

[(1393)John Gower, Confessio Amantis, IV.2727]

And soo he [Launcelot] rode in to a grete forest all that day / and neuer coude fynde no hyghe waye / and soo the nyght felle on hym / and thenne was he ware in a slade of a pauelione of reed sendel.

"And so Lancelot rode into a great forest all that day, and never could find no high way, and so the night fell on him, and then he became aware of a pavilion of red linen in a slade."

[(1470)Syr Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, VI.5]

There by a lytyll slad sir Launcelot wounded hym sore nyghe unto the deth.

"There by a little slade Sir Lancelot wounded him sorely, nearly unto death."

[(1470)Syr Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, VI.5]

For drede lest þou be ouerthrowe And falle so depe into the slade, That euer after it myght turne to shade.

"And fear least you be overthrown and fall so deep into the slade that ever after it might turn to shade."

[(1475)Peter Idley, Instructions to His Son, 1.846]

And my favourite---essentially slayed 'em in a slade, with alliterating slogh ("slay"), sleghly ("cunningly") and slade---found in an early English translation of The Aeneid (where in þe slade moue means "in the mouth of the valley"):

Þai..Slogh hom doun sleghly in þe slade moue.

"They struck them down ('slayed them down') cunningly in the mouth of the slade."

[(1540)John Clerk of Whalley Lancashire, The Gest Hystoriale of the Destruction of Troy, 7005]

We also find slade used metaphorically in the sense "slopes/valleys of clouds", as in:

The skyes in her coloures rake, Þe therke sladdes of clowdes blake: This reioyceth me above.

"The sky rushing in her colours, the dark slades of black clouds: this cheers me up."

[(1500), A speech of delight, 19-21]

All of these common noun usages of slade appear to be archaic/obsolete in modern English (though perhaps they survive in certain dialects?). The most recent example in Oxford English Dictionary[2] for slade as a common noun is from the end of the 19th-century:

Over the slade they took their way, where the purple carpet was patterned with round hollows.

[(1899) A. MORRISON, To London Town 5]

The usual form of the surname, Slade (rather than slæd or slad), derives from the dative singular form (the case often employed after prepositions like in, from etc.), reflecting the fact that the surname originally denoted the place of residence, i.e. "the person who lives in a slade". Indeed in late Old English and Middle English we find records like:

Robertus de la Slade. ("Robert of the Slade")

[(1221)Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, (during the reign of) Henry III]

Laur. de Slade. ("Laurence of Slade")

[(1296)The Three Earliest Subsidies for the County of Sussex in the years 1296, 1327, 1332]

Johannes atte Slade. ("John at the Slade")

[(1345)Rymer's Foedera (1816-69) :: Foedera, conventiones, literae]

The forms de la and de reflect Norman French patterns (interestingly, slade is treated as feminine in Norman French; though of course French has no grammatical neuter gender so it had to assign slade to either masculine or feminine). Atte is a contracted form of at þe "at the".

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms (including Essex)

The earliest use of Slade as a proper noun is the name of the early Anglo-Saxon king of Essex, Sledd (or Sledda), who married Ricula, the sister of King Æthelbert of Kent. One of the East Saxon genealogies for Sledd is given below:

Offa sighering, sighere sigberhting, sigberht sawearding, saweard saberhting, saberht sledding, sledd æscwining, æscwine offing, offa bedcing, bedca sigefugling, sigefugl swæpping, swæppa antsecging, antsecg gesecging, gesecg seaxneting.

"Offa, son of Sighere, son of Sigberht, son of Saweard, son of Saberht, son of Sledd, son of Æscwine, son of Offa, son of Bedca, son of Sigefugl, son of Swæppa, son of Antsecg, son of Gesecg, son of Seaxneat."

[London, British Library, Add. MS 23211 (9th-c.?), in Sweet[3]:179]

The form Sledd instead of Slæd appears to reflect the changes in the system of front vowels found in the Old English of Kent (neighbouring Essex) during the 9th-century, which included the changes æ > e , ǣ > ē (see Campbell[4]:§288-§291). Although Sledd's father Æscwine/Eorcenwine is sometimes credited with the foundation of the kingdom, the genealogies included in the works of William of Malmesbury and John of Worcester (Chronicon B) treat Sledd the first king of Essex. In the genealogy cited above, Sledd is treated as a descendant of Seaxnēat, the mythical founder of the Saxons. (On King Sledd of Essex, see further Yorke[5].)

However, in more modern times, the surname Slade appears to have been most commonly found in the southwest of England, particularly in Devon.

As shown by the map above, Slades were also found in the neighbouring county of Somerset, where another "B. Slade", Sir Benjamin Julian Alfred Slade, Bt., has his ancestral seat, Maunsel House (which his ancestors appear to have acquired in the 18th-century), where Geoffrey Chaucer is said to have written part of Canterbury Tales.

Other famous Slades include Sir Thomas Slade, the naval architect who designed the HMS Victory, Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805; Felix Slade, who endowed professorships at Oxford, Cambridge, and University College London, as well as endowing scholarships which led to the establishment of the Slade School of Fine Art in London; and Madeleine Slade, daughter of the British Rear-Admiral Sir Edmond Slade, who left England for India to work with Mohandas Gandhi (who gave her the name Mirabehn) during the Quit India movement.

For more genealogical information on Slades in the USA and UK, see Jim Slade's excellent site SladeGenealogy.net. [On the Maryland Slades, see the genealogy research of the late John Pearce available here.]

Earlier etymology of SLADE:

The range of meanings we find for the word slade seem to point to its original sense as being something like "slope", compare the cognate dialectal Norwegian slad [neuter] (also slade[masculine]), "a slope, a hollow". And thus the Proto-Germanic root underlying slade must be cognate with Proto-Germanic*slid- "to slip, slide" (from Proto-Indo-European *sleidh-), from which root is derived English slide (from Old English slīdan) as well as sled (from Middle Low German sledde) and sleigh (from Middle Dutch slēde "sled"), see Watkins[6]:80.

The Proto-Indo-European form *sleidh- is an extended form of the more basic Proto-Indo-European root *(s)lei-, from which, with other extensions, we derive a number of other words in English, including lime (as in bird-lime, on which see here), and slip. The latter word, slip, is also cognate with the name given to the eight-legged horse, Sleipnir "the slippery(?), the glider(?)", belonging to the Norse god Odin (more properly Óðinn, whose name in Old English is Wōden; both from Proto-Germanic *Wōd-inaz "raging, mad, inspired", itself from the Proto-Indo-European root *wet- "to blow, spiritually inspire"; see Watkins[6]:101), as depicted below:

[Odin riding Sleipnir, 18th-century illustration in MS NKS 1867 4°, Danish Royal Library]

[Odin riding Sleipnir, 8th/9th-century Ardre picture stone (Gotland, Sweden)]

References:

[1]Bosworth, Joseph and T. Northcote Toller. 1898. An Anglo-Saxon dictionary. London: Oxford University Press.

[2]The Oxford English Dictionary, September 2009 rev. ed.

[3]Sweet, Henry. 1885. The oldest English texts. London: Early English Text Society.

[4]Campbell, Alistair. 1959. Old English grammar. Oxford: Clarendon.

[5]Yorke, Barbara. 1985. "The kingdom of the East Saxons". Anglo-Saxon England 14:1-36.

[6]Watkins, Calvert. 2000. The American Heritage dictionary of Indo-European roots. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2nd edn.

Old English citations are taken from the University of Toronto's Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus; Middle English citations are taken from the University of Michigan's electronic Middle English Dictionary.