Anspruch

Forms

Anspruch m (genitive Anspruches or Anspruchs, plural Ansprüche)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German anspruch (“accusation, objection”), formed from ansprechen, Middle High German anesprechen, Old High German anasprehhan, like Spruch from the simple verb.^[2][3][4] The verb sprechen continues Middle High German sprechen, Old High German sprehhan, Proto-West Germanic *sprekan, also found in Old English sprecan and Old Frisian spreka, with r-less forms such as specan, the source of English speak.^[5][2] Kluge finds the comparisons outside Germanic, Welsh ffraeth (“witty”) and Albanian shpreh (“to express”), too distant in meaning, and suggests that it may be an expressive word like Old Norse spraka (“to crackle”).^[5] Pfeifer traces these forms to a root Proto-Indo-European *(s)p(h)ereg-.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a charter of 1291 that no heir shall ever gain kain anspruch “any claim” to the property.^[6][3] Middle High German used the word for a legal claim, an accusation and an objection, and it became common only in the 16th century.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

In early New High German Anspruch was above all a legal claim, as in later compounds such as Rentenanspruch and Urlaubsanspruch, and then any demand.^[7][8] Hunters used it for the sound and identification of game.^[9][10] In the 18th century one said Anspruch haben or machen an something, as Wieland and Goethe did; today the person is construed with an and the thing with auf.^[7]

Adelung in 1774 explained in Anspruch nehmen as making a legal demand on a person or thing; the phrase then weakened to “make use of” and finally to “require”, as in Das nimmt viel Zeit in Anspruch.^[7][10] The adjectives anspruchslos (Wieland) and anspruchsvoll (Campe 1807) followed, and beanspruchen is a young formation that the Grimms' dictionary listed in 1854 without examples.^[7]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German sprehhan is first recorded.^[5]
• 11th century – Old High German anasprehhan “to address”.^[2]
• 1291 – First record of anspruch, in a charter.^[6]
• 16th century – The word becomes common.^[6]
• 1774 – Adelung records in Anspruch nehmen as a legal phrase.^[7]
• 1807 – Campe records anspruchsvoll.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A demand or expectation: hohe Ansprüche an die Qualität stellen;^[11][1] Anspruch auf etwas erheben, to lay claim to something.^[11][1]
2. jemanden or etwas in Anspruch nehmen, to make use of someone or something; to take up time or strength: Die Renovierung nahm den ganzen Sommer in Anspruch.^[11]
3. A right or entitlement: Anspruch auf Urlaub haben.^[11][1]
4. (law) A claim, the right to demand that someone do or refrain from something, and the claim as raised in court.^[1][11]

Word family

• anspruchsvoll
• anspruchslos
• anspruchsberechtigt
• beanspruchen
• Rechtsanspruch

Related words

• ansprechen
• Ansprache
• sprechen
• Spruch
• Einspruch
• Zuspruch

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 805
5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 871
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
7. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 471
10. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
11. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag