Arbeit

Forms

Arbeit f (genitive Arbeit, plural Arbeiten)^[1] Middle High German also had ärbeit, erbeit, with secondary umlaut, and Luther still wrote erbeit.^[2][3] The standard language keeps the full diphthong of the second syllable, which has secondary stress, while most dialects reduce it (árbet).^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German arebeit, inherited from Old High German arabeit, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *arbaiþi, inherited from Proto-Germanic *arbaidiz (“toil, hardship”).^[5][1][6] The same word is Gothic 𐌰𐍂𐌱𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (arbaiþs), Old Saxon arƀed, Old Frisian arbēd, Old English earfoþ and Old Norse erfiði.^[5][6] Swedish arbete and Danish arbejde were borrowed from Middle Low German arbēt.^[7] English lost the word.^[4]

How it was formed is disputed.^[5][3][8] Pfeifer and the Duden take it as an abstract noun from a lost Germanic verb meaning “to be an orphan, a child put to hard work”, from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos (“orphan”), also the source of Erbe and perhaps of arm.^[7][9][1] The Grimms' revised dictionary supports this root with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha, “small, young”), Old Armenian որբ (orb, “orphan”) and Latin orbus (“bereft, orphaned”), but notes that the extension of the Germanic word remains unexplained.^[10] Kroonen likewise sees a noun in *-ti- made from an unattested stative verb.^[6]

Kluge leaves open whether it is such an abstract, a type not otherwise attested, and compares the Slavic word for work, Old Church Slavonic работа (rabota, “servitude, slavery”), which clearly belongs with рабъ (rabŭ, “servant, slave”), though its suffix cannot be matched with the Germanic one.^[5] The same Slavic word is Russian работа (rabóta, “work”), the source of Roboter.^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German arabeit is recorded from the 8th century, in the Murbach Hymns, the Benedictine Rule, Tatian, Otfrid, the Ludwigslied and Notker.^[7][11] It meant “hardship, misfortune”, “trouble, toil, burden, effort”, and only rarely “work” in the sense of Latin opus.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the word stood above all for hardship and suffering, endured or taken on of one's own will: the Nibelungenlied says of a hero er leit … arbeit “he suffered hardship”.^[7][3] Luther could still render Psalm 90:10 with Mühe vnd Erbeit, for Latin labor et dolor.^[3] At the same time he gave work a positive value as a person's calling in the world, building on the ethics of chivalry and on medieval mysticism, and the word largely lost its sense of unworthy drudgery.^[9][7][3] It then came to mean any purposeful activity, first of the body and later also of the mind.^[7] The concrete sense “product of work”, hinted at in Old High German, became fully established in New High German.^[7]

Arbeitsteilung renders Adam Smith's division of labour (1776): German first had Verteilung der Arbeit (1776) and Teilung der Arbeit (1796), and the compound appears in 1808.^[7] arbeitslos meant “effortless” from the early 16th century and “without work” from the second half of the 18th.^[7] The word was also borrowed as Japanese アルバイト (arubaito).^[1]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German arabeit is recorded.^[7][5]
• 9th century – The verb arbeiten appears.^[7]
• 16th century – Luther gives work a positive value but still writes erbeit.^[7][3]
• 1776 – Verteilung der Arbeit translates Adam Smith's division of labour.^[7]
• 1808 – The compound Arbeitsteilung appears.^[7]
• 2nd half of the 18th century – arbeitslos “without work” appears.^[7]
• 1st half of the 19th century – Arbeitslosigkeit “unemployment” appears.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An activity or task, a piece of work to be done: eine mühsame Arbeit.^[12][1]
2. Working, being busy with something.^[12]
3. Effort, trouble, toil: Das war viel Arbeit.^[12][1]
4. Employment, a job; one's place of work: Arbeit suchen, zur Arbeit fahren.^[12][1]
5. (sport) training.^[12]
6. (equestrianism, hunting) The training of a horse or a hunting dog.^[12]
7. The result of work, a product or piece of work.^[12][1]
8. A written test at school, short for Klassenarbeit.^[12][13]
9. The way something is made, workmanship: eine feine Arbeit.^[12][1]
10. (physics) work, force times distance.^[12][1]

Word family

• arbeiten
• Arbeiter
• arbeitsam
• arbeitslos
• Arbeitslosigkeit
• Arbeitsteilung
• Arbeitgeber
• Arbeitnehmer
• Arbeitsplatz
• bearbeiten
• verarbeiten
• Mitarbeiter

Related words

• Roboter
• Erbe
• arm

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 1, 313
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 538
5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 57
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
10. ^ 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. 3, 180
11. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 39
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org