GENERAL WORDS FOR SEX AND KINSHIP 139 



mdh are used in O.H.G. for all parallel blood relationship, 

 and stand to magen as kin to kone. The plural magon 

 is very early glossed cognati, relatives by birth, or from 

 the womb. 



In Gothic magus is son, child, servant, mavi and 

 magaps, maid. Megs ( = mag a) is curiously a daughter's 

 husband, quite intelligible if the son be the daughter's 

 husband, as in the kin-group, but otherwise difficult of in- 

 terpretation. Akin to it is the Swedish mdgr for son-in- 

 law. Both are deduced from O.N. mdgr, denoting blood 

 relative. O.N. has also mdgr for boy. In A.S. we have 

 maeg for kinsman ; maege for kinswoman, female cousin ; 

 gemagas, glossed consanguinei, and maegs for kinship. 

 Maege in A. S. is of special interest ; we find it denoting 

 maiden, kin, family, tribe, people, province, nation. 

 Thus we see the gradual expansion of the mdc with the 

 growth of a patriarchal civilisation. O.F. mach, child 

 as in tha moder and thet mach, must be compared with 

 mecli, gdmech, in the same dialect, for gaugenossen, 

 members of the same mark ; it is a step in the identifica- 

 tion of the primitive mark with a kin -group. O.H.G. 

 gives us mdcshaft for kinship ; gemdgeda for relation- 

 ship, family ; mdgiu, relative, cousin i.e. all the chil- 

 dren of the kin-group ; * magidi for servants precisely 

 as liiwe is related to the hiwa or hive. Finally, we may 

 note M.H.G. maget, magad, mait, German madchen, 

 and English maid. 



So far we have seen only the origin of a number of 

 kin words in the magen, or make, idea. This is quite 

 parallel to calling the child the born one, as in bairn 



1 Magiu is glossed cosina, even in mediaeval Bavarian dialect. 



