The story
- Old English · derived fromgodfyrht“god-fearing”
- Middle English · derived fromgoddfrihti“god-fearing”
- English todaygodfearing
From god + fearing, likely an alteration of Middle English goddfrihti (“god-fearing”, literally “god-frighty”) and god-friht (“god-fearing”) (whence modern English god-fright), from Old English godfyrht (“god-fearing”). Compare Old High German gotforht (“god-fearing”).
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishgoddfrihti all →
god-fearing
Old Englishgodfyrht all →
god-fearing
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.