The story
- Old Norse · derived fromgandferð“gand-journey”
- English todayganfer
Originally a dialectal term from Shetland and Orkney, also denoting certain negative atmospheric phenomena. Thought to ultimately derive from Old Norse gandferð (“gand-journey”), with the first element connected to Old Norse gandr (“evil spirit”). Compare dialectal Norwegian gannfar, gandferd
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.