Ing
Ing is a god in Anglo-Saxon Heathenry, typically associated with fertility.
Etymology
Ing is a learned borrowing from Old English Ing, from Proto-Germanic *Inguz. The exact origin and formation of the Proto-Germanic theonym is uncertain but it most likely stems from a derivational form of the Proto-Indo-European adjective *néḱus which, whilst originally meaning “dead, perished”, seems to have shifted in meaning to “mortal, man” in some European languages.
The specific derivation that would give rise to Proto-Germanic *Inguz seems to be a Proto-Indo-European zero derivation of some form, for example *nḱ-u-, which based on the meaning of “mortal, man” could potentially be seen as denoting a base meaning of “relating to mortality” or “relating to man”. This could correlate with the tendency to pair Proto-Germanic *Inguz with the noun *winiz meaning “friend”, giving rise to the Old English form Ingwine and the Latin tribal term Ingaevōnēs (cf. English Ingvaeonic).
The zero derivational form, which begins with a syllabic nasal, seems to be necessary to explain the initial /in-/ part of the Proto-Germanic theonym, though the exact quality of the vowel as /i/ makes less sense without other explanation, as typically /un-/ would be expected here (cf. PGmc *uns “us”, from PIE *nsmé). For this gap, some have posited the influence of Latin which would expect a realisation of /in/ for such a syllabic nasal (cf. Latin indu, from PIE *h₁ndó), whilst others have posited an older Proto-Germanic form *unguz which shifted in vowel quality, perhaps by some process similar to ablaut.
Attestations
This section is to be written.
Folklore
This section is to be written.