Artikel

Forms

Artikel m (genitive Artikels, plural Artikel)^[1] Until the 18th century the word was also written Articul and was often inflected as Latin (articuli, articulos).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German artikel, borrowed from Latin articulus (“small joint; section”), a diminutive of artus (“joint, limb”).^[4][3][2] Kluge and Pfeifer describe several borrowings of the same Latin word: first into the language of chanceries, in the sense “section of a contract or law”, then in the 16th century as a term of grammar, and in the late 17th century, from French article, in the sense “item of merchandise”.^[4][3][5]

The grammatical sense of articulus is a loan meaning after Ancient Greek ἄρθρον (árthron, “joint”), which the Stoics used for certain pronouns; the article was seen as a joint in the sentence.^[4][3] English article, Dutch artikel and Swedish artikel go back to the same Latin word.^[4] Kluge connects the Latin word with the family of Arm.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are from the mid-13th century, when a Nuremberg ordinance lists the articuli that every citizen must swear to keep; the German form appears in a charter of 1281 and in 1291 (artikeln).^[2][6][3] The sense is “section of a document”, especially of a legal or religious text.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

From “clause of a text” the word came to mean its content, a provision or a point of dispute, which was common from the 16th to the 18th century; articles of faith were called Glaubensartikel.^[3][6] In the 18th century it was used for a self-contained piece of writing in a periodical, Goethe's Zeitungsartikel, from which comes Leitartikel “editorial”.^[3][6]

The grammatical term is recorded in 1556; in the 17th century Schottelius, Zesen and Stieler proposed Geschlechtswort for it, and Gottsched spoke of the definite and indefinite article in 1749.^[6] The commercial sense “kind of goods” is recorded in 1676, after French article, from the separate items of a bill.^[6][4] Czech artikl and Russian артикул were borrowed from German.^[8][1]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – Latin articuli appears in a Nuremberg ordinance.^[2]
• 1281 – Middle High German artikel is recorded.^[6]
• 1439 – The verb artikulieren is recorded.^[6]
• 1556 – Artikel is used as a term of grammar.^[6]
• 1676 – The sense “kind of goods” appears, after French article.^[6]
• 1749 – Gottsched writes of the definite and indefinite article.^[6]
• 18th century – The sense “newspaper article” appears.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An article, a piece of writing in a newspaper, journal or reference work.^[9][1]
2. A numbered section of a law, treaty or similar text, a clause: Artikel 1 der Verfassung.^[9][1]
3. An article of faith; a thesis.^[9]
4. An item of merchandise, a product.^[9][1]
5. (grammar) The definite or indefinite article.^[9][1]

Word family

• artikulieren
• Artikulation
• Leitartikel
• Glaubensartikel

Related words

• Arm
• English article

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 63
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 109
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ 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, 310
8. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
9. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag