Abstract
The aim of this article is to assess, by contrast with the evolution traceable in the Latin languages, the semantics of the Germanic words for things, in particular the lexical root that lead to this word and similar terms in the other languages of the same family. We survey the evidence from the earliest Germanic through the medieval languages. Our hypothesis is that the progressive effect of Latinisation affected the meaning and made it closer to those derived from Latin res and causa. This is already partially visible in early Frankish and Langobardic sources, but becomes clear from Carolingian times onwards. The main exception, found in Old Norse and particularly prominent in Icelandic (which preserves the original sense of “assembly”) reinforces this view, as it represents a society relatively outside the institutional and cultural core derived from a Roman framework.
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