geþafa

• IPA^(key): /jeˈθɑ.fɑ/, [jeˈθɑ.vɑ]

Likely from ġeþafian (“to favour; to permit, allow”) +‎ -a. Alternatively, possibly from Proto-Germanic *ga- + *þabaz (“fitting; appropriate”) (see Usage Notes and Etymology 2), whence also ġeþafian.

ġeþafa m

1. one who favours, consents to, helps, acquiesces to, agrees to or with, or supports something (+ genitive or dative of thing).
   • c. 897, Alfred the Great, translation of Pope Gregory's Pastoral Care

     Hī nyllað ġeðafan bēon ōðerra monna ġeðeahtes.

     They do not wish to be supporters of other peoples' counsel.

• Sometimes treated as indeclinable.
• It is not entirely clear whether this word is a weak masculine noun, a weak adjective (see Etymology 2), or both, and the Bosworth-Toller Dictionary has separate entries for it as both. It only ever occurs in the extant corpus as a predicate of the verbs wesan, bēon, and weorþan, is never used attributively, and the expected feminine nominative and neuter nominative/accusative singular adjectival form *ġeþafe is unattested, suggesting a weak masculine noun. However, based on similar adjective forms in both Old English (e.g. sometimes-indeclinable adjectives like āna, fela, and fēaw, when used as fēawa) and Icelandic, the fact that it is never modified itself by other attributive adjectives, and a number of apparently adjective-like uses in the corpus, it is possible it was instead an adjective.

Weak:

See Etymology 1.

ġeþafa

1. indicates consent to, agreeance with, acquiescence to, or support for something (+ genitive or dative of thing)

ġeþafa

1. singular imperative of ġeþafian

• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “ge-þafa”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Joseph Bosworth, T. Northcote Toller (1898) “ge-þafa”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.