† i-gengn.

Etymology: Either (i) < y- prefix + the base of gang v.¹, with suffix causing i-mutation, probably with an underlying sense ‘act of going together’ (compare (with different suffix) Old English gegenga fellow-traveller, which may also have influenced this word), or perhaps (ii) cognate with or formed similarly to Old Icelandic gengi help, support, following, Old Swedish gänge help, Old Danish gingi workforce, crew, apparently < the Germanic base of y- prefix (regularly lost in the attested Scandinavian languages) + the Germanic base of gang v.¹, with suffix causing i-mutation. Compare the apparently similarly-formed Old Saxon gigengi a person's turn (in e.g. performing a duty) (see note).In earliest use apparently in manuscripts and sources associated with Wulfstan but, unlike ging n.¹, not restricted to sources typically associated with Scandinavian loanwords. In Old English apparently a strong neuter, perhaps also feminine (although a possible instance of use as feminine has alternatively been explained as a scribal error: see Dict. Old Eng. at gegenge). Semantic considerations. With the semantic development from ‘act of travelling’ to ‘company of people’ (originally travelling together) compare Old English fierd ferd n.¹ With the semantic development from ‘help, support’ to ‘military host’ (perhaps originally a relief force) compare Old English fultum fultum n. Old English homonym. An isolated apparently earlier attestation of Old English gegenge in Genesis B (apparently in sense ‘fate’) has been explained as an independent borrowing of Old Saxon gigengi , attested in the Heliand apparently denoting a person's turn in e.g. performing a duty. This instance of Old English gegenge has alternatively been interpreted as showing an otherwise unattested prefixed form of the adjective genge adj. in sense ‘appropriate, agreeable’. Other languages. Later Scandinavian forms (e.g. Swedish gänge, Danish gænge passage) probably do not show continuity with the medieval words, but independent later re-formations from the same base (without the Germanic prefix).