194 KINDRED GROUP-MARRIAGE 



from the sexual standpoint as that of the primitive 

 savage, we may, however, look at a similar root, 

 swang, which occurs in O.H.GL swengen, and our 

 English swing. We find the O.H.G-. glossed vibrare, 

 quassare, to shake and to quake a rapid, flapping 

 motion, exactly expressed by vip and weipon. But 

 immediately derived from this root is swangar, Modern 

 German schwanger, used of the pregnant woman, while 

 schwdngern is to impregnate, which may possibly throw 

 light on the sexual sense of vip. Now the first sure 

 sign of pregnancy is the quickening, the first moving 

 of the child in the womb, a quaking, vibrating feeling, 

 which has been described by those who have experienced 

 it as "like holding a small, live bird in the hand." 

 Indeed, the primitive value of quake seems to be 

 identical with quick, and to signify the giving life to. 1 

 It is this rapid, fluttering, quaking motion, which is the 

 notion in swangar, that I conceive also to be the 

 primitive notion in wip. Daz wip is that which 

 quickens, and, as in the case of several other names for 

 woman, 2 I assume the womb to have given its name to 

 the wife. Thus the neuter gender and wifman i.e. 

 womb-man become intelligible. It is noteworthy that 

 as the root wip may be associated with words denoting 

 wrapping up as well as rolling, flapping, and flowing 

 motion (vaefan, weban, wtilzen, welle, wave, weave, etc.), 

 so Latin vulva, volva, womb and wrap, appears to be 



1 M.H.G. quec, 0. Fries, quik, kuik, denote young cattle. Is it possible 

 that Aryan g'eltd, Sanskrit jarta, Greek fo-Xra, Gothic kilthei, for womb, is also 

 related to the Aryan root gelvo, shudder, shake ? 



2 I may add to those already cited the Breton giuamm ( = womb) as a term 

 of contempt for woman. 



