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 καλός, and θεός with τίθημι (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.
[REFERENCES.]
M. M., Myths and Myth-makers, 1872; C. P., Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, 1874; U. W., The Unseen World, 1876; D., Darwinism and Other Essays, 1879; E. E., Excursions of an Evolutionist, 1884; D. M., The Destiny of Man, 1884; A. P. I., American Political Ideas, 1885.