I'm looking for the etymology of words like godparent, godchild, etc. In particular, why "god" is added as a prefix? So far I haven't found an explanation. Wiktionary (for godfather) states:
From Middle English godfader, from Old English godfæder (“godfather”), equivalent to god + father. Cognate with Old Saxon godfadar (“godfather”), Middle Dutch godvader (“godfather”), Danish gudfader, gudfar (“godfather”), Swedish gudfader, gudfar (“godfather”), Icelandic guðfaðir (“godfather”). Morphologically god + father.
Not very helpful. Wikipedia does not provide clues either. It states:
… by the end of the 6th century, they were being noted to as "compaters" and "commaters"
which is Latin. Spanish and French terms follow a similar structure, without adding the "god" prefix (eg. "com-padre" and "co-madre" in Spanish). It seems the German word also does not contain the particle "god" in it. Any idea about the origin of such word?
Best Answer
OED (paywalled) addresses your question,
directly in the etymological notes pertaining to 'godfather', n. (bold emphasis mine):
That note covers the territory pretty well; the etymology of 'gossip' adds little, although it was of more than passing interest to me. In short, 'gossip' derives from compounding of Old English god n. and int., in the sense of
and Old English sib adj. in the sense of
(All quoted definitions from OED.)