Gevatter

German

Etymology

From Middle High German gevatere, gevater, gefater, from Old High German gifatero (“godfather”), from Proto-West Germanic *gafaderjō, equivalent to ge- +‎ Vater. Cognate with Old English ġefædera (“godfather”), Middle Low German gevādere, Dutch gevader. Compare also Medieval Latin compater. It is unclear whether the Germanic words were calqued from the Latin, or vice versa (compare Late Latin compāniō).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɡəˈfatɐ]
• Hyphenation: Ge‧vat‧ter

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

Gevatter m (strong, genitive Gevatters, plural Gevatter)

1. godfather

Declension

Declension of Gevatter [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Gevatter	die	Gevatter
genitive	eines	des	Gevatters	der	Gevatter
dative	einem	dem	Gevatter	den	Gevattern
accusative	einen	den	Gevatter	die	Gevatter

Derived terms

• Gevatterschaft

Further reading

• “Gevatter” in Duden online
• “Gevatter” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache