Unfortunately, however, Spanish scholars and antiquaries have too much neglected the Gothic element in their language, and they have consequently missed the only source from whence, as it appears to me, the true origin of Era could be developed. The Marquis de Mondejar indeed seems to have had a suspicion of the true source; for he has a chapter thus entitled "Si puede ser Gothica la voz ERA i aver introducido los Godos su computo en España?" in which he thus expresses his incapacity to answer his own question:
"I assi contentandonos con aver expressado nuestra imaginacion con el mismo recelo que la discurrimos, prohibendonos la ignorancia de la lengua Gothica antigua, el que podamos justificar si pudo aver procedido de ella la voz ERA propria del computo de que hablamos."
As long since as 1664 that eminent northern philologist Thomas Marshall, in his notes on the Gothic Gospels, had thus expressed himself, confirming, if not anticipating, Spelman:
"{jER} proprie significat annum, sicque usurpatur in omnibus linguis Gothicæ cognatis; suâ scilicet cuique Dialecto asservatâ. Videant Hispani, nunquid eorum HERA vel ERA, quod Ætatem et tempus dicitur interdum significare, debeat originationem suam Gothico {jER}, atque num forsan hinc quoque aliquid lucis affulserit indagantibus originem vexatissimi illius Æra, quatenus significat Epocham Chronologicam."
In the Glossary the further development of the origin of the word is ingenious, but not satisfactory:
"Prisca interim Gothorum atque Anglo-Saxonum orthographiâ inducor ut credam {ger} vel {gear} esse à γυροῦν Gyrare, in orbem circumvolvere, juxta illud poetæ principis, Georg. II. 402.:
'Atque in se sua per vestigia volvitur annus.'
"Unde et Annum idem poëta, Æneid. I. 273., Orbem dixit:
'Triginta magnos volvendis mensibus orbes
Imperio explebit,'