Bahn

Forms

Bahn f (genitive Bahn, plural Bahnen)^[1] Older German occasionally used the word as a masculine, as in über den ban (1468) and den rechten bahn in Abraham a Sancta Clara.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ban(e) (“path, way”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *banu, inherited from Proto-Germanic *banō.^[3][1] The same word is Middle Low German bāne and Middle Dutch bane, now Dutch baan; Danish bane and Swedish bana were borrowed from Middle Low German.^[3][4] The word is missing in the oldest period of the language.^[3] The revised Grimm dictionary calls its origin uncertain.^[2]

Most sources connect it with Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌾𐌰 (banja, “(fatal) blow, wound”), Old Norse ben, Old English benn (“wound”), Old High German bano (“killer”), Old High German bana (“death”) and English bane, from a root meaning “to strike”: the path would at first have been a way cut through a forest or a beaten, trodden track,^[4][5][2][6] with parallels in Middle High German slâ (“track”), French chemin battu (“beaten path”) and Latin via trita.^[7] Paul compares Schneise beside schneiden.^[5] Pfeifer gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *bʰen- (“to strike, wound”),^[4] while the revised Grimm dictionary and Wiktionary give Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“to strike, kill”).^[2][1]

Kluge takes it instead as a technical term, starting from the sense “striking face of a hammer” and comparing Sanskrit घन (ghaná, “hammer”), Russian гон (gon, “(dialect) stretch ploughed without turning”) and Welsh gwanaf (“swath”); he sets up a word for a surface in particular uses, from a noun “blow” that belongs to the same root as Sanskrit हन्ति (hánti, “strikes”), Hittite kuenzi, Ancient Greek θείνω (theínō, “to strike”) and Latin offendō.^[3] The revised Grimm dictionary notes that the hammer sense is first recorded only in Early New High German.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates the word to the 12th century.^[3] Hartmann von Aue's Erec (about 1185) describes an orchard with ein eben ban, a level path, running round it.^[2] The EWA cites a Latinised de media bana in a post-Carolingian charter as possibly the earliest record.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a beaten path, hence Bahn brechen, used by Luther, and figuratively, as Adelung explains, to make the first start in a difficult undertaking; from it came Bahnbrecher in the 18th century and bahnbrechend “epoch-making” in the middle of the 19th.^[5][4] The word was used for the course of the stars and, in time, of a life (Lebensbahn, Laufbahn), and for a way of conduct: Luther prays to stay auf rechter bane;^[5] aus der Bahn geworfen werden may come from the tournament.^[5] In sport it is the course or track on which races are run, as in Rennbahn and Eisbahn.^[4]

The sense “breadth of cloth”, as in Tuchbahn and Zeltbahn, was taken from Dutch baan.^[4][5] From the 1830s the way for the locomotive gave Bahn “railway”, shortened from Eisenbahn, and at the end of the 19th century it also came to mean the tram.^[3][5] The railway brought Bahnhof (about 1840), which displaced Eisenbahnhof, and Bahnsteig (1886), which won out over Perron.^[4] German Autobahn was borrowed into English as autobahn in 1937, and Russian took бан.^[8][1]

Timeline

• 12th century – First record of Middle High German ban(e).^[3]
• c. 1185 – Hartmann von Aue uses ban for a level path.^[2]
• 1468 – A masculine ban is recorded in Augsburg.^[2]
• First half of the 17th century – Bahn brechen “to prepare a way” is recorded.^[4]
• 18th century – Bahnbrecher “pioneer” appears.^[4]
• 1830s – Bahn comes to mean the railway.^[5]
• c. 1840 – Bahnhof appears.^[4]
• 1886 – Bahnsteig appears.^[4]
• 1937 – English borrows autobahn.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A path or way that someone or something clears through difficult ground: Die Feuerwehr schlug sich eine Bahn durch das Gestrüpp. Sich Bahn brechen is to win through.^[6][1]
2. The course that a body follows, an orbit or trajectory: die Bahn eines Kometen.^[6][1]
3. A marked-out track for races; a lane of such a track or of a swimming pool; a bowling or skittle alley; a lane of a road.^[6][1]
4. A long strip of material cut to a width, such as cloth, wallpaper or roofing membrane: drei Bahnen Tapete.^[6][1]
5. (crafts) The flat working face of a tool, as of a hammer or anvil.^[6][9]
6. Short for Eisenbahn: the railway, a train; also a tram, suburban or underground train: Wir fahren mit der Bahn nach Hamburg.^[6][1]
7. (colloquial) The railway as an institution or company; also a station.^[6][1]

Word family

• bahnen
• anbahnen
• Bahnbrecher
• bahnbrechend
• Bahnhof
• Bahnsteig
• Autobahn
• Eisenbahn
• Straßenbahn
• Laufbahn

Related words

• Schneise
• English bane

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include freie Bahn haben “to have a clear way”, auf die schiefe Bahn geraten “to go off the rails, go astray” and jemanden aus der Bahn werfen “to throw someone off course”.^[6] The sports call Bahn frei! “make way!” is also common.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 4, 64
3. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 83
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 1, 460
8. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
9. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org