gebôt

Gebôt is a historical Dutch noun that denotes an offering, pledge, or vow made to a deity or sacred authority. The form with a diacritic, gebôt, appears mainly in older texts and in linguistic or philological discussions about Middle Dutch spellings. In modern Dutch, the corresponding contemporary forms are typically gebod (commandment) or offering contexts are often expressed with woorden such as aanbod or offer.

Etymology and orthography

Gebôt is tied to older Dutch spelling traditions where long vowels were marked with diacritics. It is related to the same Germanic root family as gebod and Gebot, but its semantic development diverged in Dutch, with gebod becoming the standard term for a commandment or precept in later Dutch. Today gebôt is largely encountered in manuscript studies, philological commentaries, or in texts that aim to reproduce historical orthography.

Meanings and usage

In its historical sense, gebôt referred to a formal act of offering or binding vow, often within religious or ritual contexts. It could denote an offering to God or a pledge pledged in a charter or legal document. Because of shifts in Dutch usage, modern editors typically replace gebôt with gebod when the meaning is “commandment,” or with terms for an offering when the sense is financial or ritual.

Historical context

Gebôt appears in medieval and early modern Dutch writings, including religious poetry, legal charters, and glossaries that preserve orthographic variants. Its appearance helps linguists distinguish evolving meanings of related terms such as gebod and the German Gebot or Gebet.

See also

Gebod, Gebot, Gebet. For historical spelling and philological discussion, see Middle Dutch dictionaries and scholarly editions of medieval Dutch texts.