öffnen
Pronunciation
- /ˈœfnən/, [ˈʔœf.nən][1]
Forms
öffnen (third-person singular present öffnet, past tense öffnete, past participle geöffnet, auxiliary haben)[1]
Etymology
It is inherited from Middle High German offenen, inherited from Old High German offanōn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *opanōn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *upanōną (“to open”), a verb formed from the adjective offen.[2][1][3] Old Saxon had opanōn and Middle Low German openen.[4] Compare Dutch openen and English open.[1]
The adjective, offan from *upanaz, is formed with an n-suffix and ablaut from the same base as auf, and oben and ober are more distant relatives.[2] Pfeifer suggests an original sense “drawn or lifted up”, hence “open”.[3] Köbler traces the base to Proto-Indo-European *upo (“under, up over”).[5]
Umlauted forms appear in the 14th century, but forms without umlaut were still frequent in the 16th and 17th centuries and survive in Switzerland as Alemannic German offnen.[4]
Earliest recorded meaning
Old High German offanōn is recorded from the 8th century, in the Isidor translation, Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “to reveal, make known, disclose, explain, betray”, and reflexively “to shine, reveal oneself”.[3][6] Middle High German offen(en) meant “to open, make manifest, show, set out, publish”.[3]
Semantic evolution
The physical sense “to open what is closed” became the main one, with the eyes as an early object both literally and figuratively, as in Luther's Luke 24:31, da worden ire augen geöffnet.[4] The word is not at home in the Upper German dialects, which say aufmachen or auftun instead.[4] Adelung already found öffnen more elevated than these verbs and used it for opening letters, graves and veins, and for opening trenches in a siege.[7] The reflexive sich öffnen is used of a view or prospect that opens up, as in Goethe.[4] The noun Öffnung goes back to Old High German offanunga “revelation, enlightenment”.[3]
Timeline
- 8th century – Old High German offanōn “to reveal” and offanunga are recorded.[3]
- 14th century – Umlauted öffenen and öffen appear.[4]
- 16th–17th century – offnen is still frequent beside öffnen.[4]
- 1793 – Adelung calls öffnen more elevated than aufmachen.[7]
Meanings
Verb
- To open something closed: Sie öffnete die Flasche.[8][1]
- To open the door to someone who wants to come in: Der Nachbar öffnete uns im Bademantel.[8][1]
- Of a shop or office, to open for business: Die Bäckerei öffnet um sechs Uhr.[8][1]
- (computing) To open a file.[1]
- (reflexive) To open, to come open: Das Tor öffnete sich langsam.[8][1]
- (reflexive) Of a flower or bud, to unfold: Im Mai öffnen sich die Knospen.[8]
- (reflexive) To open up to someone or something, to confide in someone.[8][1]
- (reflexive) Of a view or possibility, to present itself.[8]
Word family
- Öffnung
- eröffnen
- Eröffnung
- Dosenöffner
- Flaschenöffner
- Türöffner
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 666
- ^ a b c d e f Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
- ^ a b c d e f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 1185
- ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
- ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 244
- ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 587
- ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag