Etymologically
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Auftrag

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʔaʊ̯ftʁaːk/, /ˈʔaʊ̯ftʁax/, /ˈʔaʊ̯ftʁaːx/[1]

Forms

Auftrag m (genitive Auftrages or Auftrags, plural Aufträge)[1]

Etymology

It is a noun formed from the verb auftragen “to hand over, transfer”, later “to instruct, commission”, itself from German auf- + tragen.[2][3] Kluge dates the noun in its modern sense to the 17th century, and Wiktionary DE traces the verb to Middle High German ūftragen (“to commission”).[2][3]

tragen continues Old High German tragan and Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to draw, pull, carry”), as do Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌽 (dragan) and Old Saxon dragan.[4][5] The sense of pulling survives in Old English dragan (“to drag, draw”), Old Norse draga (“to draw”) and English draw, and Pfeifer takes “to drag along the ground” as the starting point, from which “to carry” developed.[4][5] No cognate outside Germanic is certain: Pfeifer reckons with a root Proto-Indo-European *dʰerāgʰ- (“to draw, drag”), while Kroonen finds no clear etymology and rejects a link with Latin trahō (“to pull”) because of its initial /t/.[4][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record, in Heinrich der Teichner (1350–1377), is an agent noun “bearer”: also ist got aller geschaft / ein sel und ein auf trag (“thus God is the soul and the bearer of all creation”).[7] In the 16th century it meant the handing over of property, in a legal record of 1538.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The sense “task, instruction” appears in a letter of 1562, but the Revised Grimm dictionary finds the word in common use only from the end of the 18th century, in phrases such as einen Auftrag erteilen and the formula im Auftrag at the end of letters.[7] Adelung records both the action of applying something, as of colours by painters, and a commissioned piece of business, and Goethe writes of the Auftrag der Farben in his writings on colour.[9][10] The verb auftragen in the sense “to instruct” has since been largely replaced by beauftragen.[2] In commerce Auftrag is an order for goods or services, and in politics a mission.[11]

Timeline

  • 1350–1377 – Heinrich der Teichner uses auf trag for a bearer.[7]
  • 1538 – Uftrag means the handing over of property in a legal record.[7]
  • 1562 – First record of the sense “instruction, commission”.[7]
  • 17th century – Kluge's date for the modern noun.[2]
  • 1773 – Christian Garve writes of errands he has been given (ein paar Aufträge).[7]
  • 1793 – Adelung records the senses “application of colours” and “commissioned business”.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An instruction or assignment, a task given to someone to carry out, also in the formula im Auftrag before a signature on behalf of someone else: Sie reiste im Auftrag ihres Verlags nach Wien.[11][1]
  2. An order for goods or a service: Die Werft hat einen Auftrag über drei Fähren erhalten.[11][1]
  3. A mission or obligation: der Auftrag der Schule.[11]
  4. The application of a substance to a surface, as of paint.[11][3]

Word family

  • Auftragsarbeit
  • Auftragsbestätigung
  • Auftragsmord

Usage notes

Etwas in Auftrag geben (commercial language) is to order something.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 73
  3. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 804
  8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  9. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 546
  10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 761
  11. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag