Angebot

Forms

Angebot n (genitive Angebots or Angebotes, plural Angebote)^[1]

Etymology

It is an 18th-century alteration of Anbot, inherited from Middle High German anbot (14th century), a noun formed from anbieten (“to offer”).^[1][2][3] The form with ⟨ge-⟩ arose, Pfeifer suggests, under the influence of gebieten and Gebot, at a time when the simple noun Bot was being replaced by the prefixed one.^[2][1] Middle Low German has anbot too, and Dutch aanbod.^[1][4]

The verb bieten is Middle High German bieten, Old High German biotan, from Proto-Germanic *beudaną (“to offer, command”), the same word as Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌱𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (anabiudan, “to command”), Old Norse bjóða, Old English bēodan and English bid.^[5][2] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰewdʰ- (“to be awake, aware”), as in Sanskrit बोधति (bódhati, “wakes, understands”), Ancient Greek πεύθομαι (peúthomai, “I learn”) and Lithuanian budėti (“to be awake”).^[5][2] How the Germanic sense “offer, announce” arose is not clear;^[5] Kluge thinks prefixed and particle verbs played a part.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form Angebot is first recorded in 1738, as angeboth in Hayme's legal dictionary, glossed by Latin oblatio mercium vendendarum, an offer of goods for sale.^[6] The older anpot appears from 1341 for an offer to sell at a price, and in 1457 for a bid at an auction.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In 1774 Adelung defines Angebot as the first bid made when something is sold.^[6] Kant uses it figuratively, of propositions that reason accepts as a foreign offer.^[7] From the first half of the 19th century the language of economics often pairs it with its opposite in Angebot und Nachfrage “supply and demand”.^[2] Anbot was replaced by Angebot in the 19th century and survives in Austria, where Grillparzer still used it.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1341 – anpot “offer to sell”.^[3]
• 1457 – anpot “bid at an auction”.^[3]
• 1738 – angeboth in Hayme's legal dictionary.^[6]
• 1774 – Adelung records Angebot as the first bid.^[6]
• First half of the 19th century – Angebot und Nachfrage in economics.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. An offer to sell or supply, a quotation: der Handwerker hat uns ein Angebot für das neue Dach geschickt.^[8][1]
2. Something offered or proposed to someone: sie nahm das Angebot ihres Nachbarn dankbar an.^[8][1]
3. (auctions) The first bid.^[8]
4. (commerce) The goods on offer;^[8][1] im Angebot is “on special offer”: diese Woche sind Kirschen im Angebot.^[8][1]
5. (economics) Supply, all the goods and services that come onto the market: Angebot und Nachfrage.^[8][1]

Word family

• Sonderangebot
• Stellenangebot
• Überangebot

Related words

• anbieten
• bieten
• Gebot
• Anbot

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d e Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 2, 778
4. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 298
5. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 121
6. ^ a b c d Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 2, 934
7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 339
8. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag