Etymology Dictionary

WADE,  to walk slowly, esp. through water.  (E.)   M. E. waden, Chaucer, C. T. 9558.—A. S. wadan, pt. t. wód, to wade, trudge, go; 'wadan ofer wealdas,' to trudge over the wolds, Genesis, ed. Grein, 2886; see Grein, ii. 636. + Du. waden, to wade, ford. + Icel. vaða, strong verb, pt. t. vóð, to wade, to rush through; whence vað, sb., a ford. + Dan. vade. + Swed. vada. + O. H. G. watan, pt. t. wuot; the mod. G. waten is only a weak verb, derived from the sb. wat, a ford; Fick, iii. 285.   β. All from the Teut. base WAD, to go, press through, make one's way; Fick (as Wad).   As the Teut. verbs are strong, we are quite sure they are not merely borrowed from Lat. uadere, to go; neither is Icel. vað, G. wat, a ford, merely borrowed from Lat. uadum.   γ. At the same time, the Lat. uadere is clearly an allied word, where d prob. stands for an orig. dh.   'Since the Lat. d can...be the representative of a dh = Gk. θ, and since, moreover, uădum corresponds in sound to the Skt. gádham of precisely equivalent meaning, which in the St. Petersburg Dict. is derived from the root gádh, to stand fast, get a firm footing, it will be better to regard it as one of the numerous dh expansions of the root ga, to go.   This is also Corssen's opinion (Beiträge, 59);' Curtius, ii. 74.   Cf. Skt. gádha, adj. shallow, prop. wherein one may get a footing; sb. the bottom; Benfey.   δ. If this be right, the base is GADH (whence GWADH, WADH), an extension of ✔GA, to go.   See Come, from the base GAM (whence GWAM), extended from the same root.   Der. wadd-le, q.v.; wad-er; and compare (from Lat. uadere) e-vade, in-vade, per-vade.