Angriff

Forms

Angriff m (genitive Angriffes or Angriffs, plural Angriffe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German anegrif, inherited from Old High German anagrif (“touch, embrace”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *anagripi (“seizure”), formed from an and the noun Griff, and belonging to the verb angreifen.^[1][2][3] The same formation is Middle Low German angrēpe, Middle Dutch aengreep, Old English ongripe and Old Norse ágrip.^[3][4] The verb anagrīfan is formed from greifen, from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną, also in Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍀𐌰𐌽 (greipan), Old Norse grípa and Old English grīpan; outside Germanic only Lithuanian griẽbti (“to grab”) matches it closely.^[5][2] Its meaning went from “to touch, take hold of” to “to come into contact with, begin” and finally “to attack”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Williram of Ebersberg's paraphrase of the Song of Songs (about 1060) uses anagrif for the bride's touch, translating tactus: “my womb trembled at his touch”.^[4][7][8] The Latinized form anagrip, “touching” a free woman, already occurs in the 7th-century Lombard laws of Rothari.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the noun still meant touching, also a handle.^[2][4] In legal language it named the arrest of a suspect, by laying hands on him, and the right to arrest, and in the 16th century also torture.^[4][9] The sense of a hostile act grew from “hostile touching, assault” in the 14th and 15th centuries, and the verb was already used in a hostile sense in 1235.^[2][10] Adelung (1793) lists the attack in war beside the legal senses.^[9]

The phrase etwas in Angriff nehmen “to begin, set about something” is first recorded in 1844 and keeps the old sense of the verb, “to start”.^[10] In sport the word names an attacking move and the attacking players, and figuratively it is sharp criticism.^[11]

Timeline

• 7th century – Latinized anagrip in the Lombard laws of Rothari.^[4]
• About 1060 – Williram uses anagrif for a touch or embrace.^[4]
• 14th–15th century – The sense “hostile attack” develops.^[2]
• 1593 – A Magdeburg judgement uses it for torture.^[4]
• 1844 – First record of in Angriff nehmen.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An attack on an enemy; an offensive: Die Truppen gingen im Morgengrauen zum Angriff über.^[11][1]
2. (sports) An attacking move, and the attacking players of a team: Der Angriff der Gäste blieb harmlos.^[11][12]
3. Sharp criticism or hostility: Der Minister wehrte sich gegen die Angriffe der Opposition.^[11]
4. etwas in Angriff nehmen: to set about, tackle something.^[11][10]

Word family

• Angriffskrieg
• Luftangriff
• angriffslustig

Related words

• angreifen
• Angreifer
• greifen
• Griff

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 995
5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 373
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 45
7. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 35
9. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 308
10. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org