Etymologically
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Bauer

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Bauer1 birdcage

Pronunciation

  • /ˈbaʊ̯ɐ/[1]

Forms

Bauer n or m (genitive Bauers, plural Bauer)[1]

Etymology

The birdcage is inherited from Middle High German būr, inherited from Old High German būr (“house, chamber”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *būrą (“dwelling, chamber”).[2][3][1] The same word is Old Saxon būr (“chamber, dwelling”), Old Norse búr (“women's room, storehouse”) and Old English būr (“hut, chamber”), the source of English bower.[3][2] It is formed with the suffix *-ros from the root of bauen in its old sense “to dwell”;[2][3][4] Kroonen gives the pre-form Proto-Indo-European *bʰuh₂-ro-.[2][3][4] Kluge thinks it probably a purely Germanic formation, though the gloss of Hesychius Ancient Greek βύριον (búrion, “house, room”), perhaps a Messapic word, is similar.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German būr meant “house”; it occurs in the Hildebrandslied and in glosses, among them an 8th-century gloss for a storeroom.[5][4] In Middle High German it is already narrowed to “birdcage”, as in Berthold von Holle's Crane (1250–60).[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The word was masculine;[7][8] Paul notes the neuter from the 17th century, in Henisch, and Adelung gives das Bauer while recording the masculine in Low German dialects.[7][8] Early New High German still used it also for a mountain hut, a charnel house, a cage for animals and a prison.[9] Henisch has the proverb besser ein vogel im bawer, dann tausent in der luft (“better one bird in the cage than a thousand in the air”).[10] The older sense “dwelling” survives in place names such as Benediktbeuern, Blaubeuren and Wesselburen.[6][8]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German būr in glosses.[2][4]
  • 1250–60 – Sense “birdcage” in Berthold von Holle.[4]
  • 1482 – buer “bird-house” in a Nuremberg vocabulary.[4]
  • 17th century – Neuter gender recorded by Henisch.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (dated, regional) A birdcage; usually Vogelbauer: Sie hängte das Bauer mit dem Wellensittich ans Fenster.[11][1]

Word family

  • Vogelbauer

Bauer2 farmer

Pronunciation

  • /ˈbaʊ̯ɐ/[1]

Forms

Bauer m (weak or mixed, genitive (standard) Bauern or (informal) Bauers, plural Bauern, diminutive Bäuerchen n or Bäuerlein n, feminine Bäuerin or Bäurin)[1]

Etymology

The farmer is inherited from Middle High German gebūre and būre, inherited from Old High German gibūro, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *būr, inherited from Proto-Germanic *būraz (“dweller”).[1][2][7] Several formations merged in it: the main one, gibūr, is a West Germanic compound with the collective prefix meaning “fellow dweller in the village community”, built like Geselle on the noun for “dwelling” of the first homograph.[2][7][6] Beside it stood the agent noun būāri (“inhabitant, settler, farmer”), būwære, from bauen.[2][12][13] Duden holds that the word is not derived from the verb.[6] The same compound is Old Saxon gibūr and Old English gebūr (“farmer”), with Dutch boer;[2] Old Norse used a different formation of the same root, Old Norse bóndi.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German būāri “inhabitant, settler” appears in the Benedictine Rule (about 800), and būr “inhabitant, neighbour, farmer” in a 9th-century gloss.[14] The prefixed forms first meant “fellow inhabitant, neighbour, villager”.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The prefixless Middle High German form prevailed from the 15th century.[7] The social order of the Middle Ages made Bauer a name of occupation and rank, set against the nobility, the clergy and the townsman, and the view of the other ranks gave it the sense “coarse, uncouth person”, early used as an insult.[6][7] Luther seldom uses it and prefers Ackermann.[15] Within the village it meant the holder of a full farm, as opposed to a cottager.[6] Since the 19th century the usual occupational name has been Landwirt.[7]

The names of the chess piece and of the card follow the order of ranks.[2] The inflection wavered: strong forms such as des alten bauers (Fontane) occur into the 19th century.[13] Hungarian borrowed the word early as pór (1211), and Czech has búr as an insult.[16]

Timeline

  • c. 800 – Old High German būāri in the Benedictine Rule.[14]
  • 9th century – First record of the prefixed noun.[2]
  • 1211 – Hungarian pór.[16]
  • 15th century – The form without prefix prevails.[7]
  • c. 1850 – Bauernfänger “con man” in Berlin thieves' cant.[7]
  • 1878 – The strong genitive bauers still in Fontane.[13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A farmer: Der Bauer fährt mit dem Traktor aufs Feld.[17][1]
  2. (historical) A peasant, a member of the peasant class.[18][1]
  3. (colloquial, derogatory) A boor, an uncouth person.[17][1]
  4. (chess) A pawn.[17][1]
  5. (card games) A jack, knave.[17][1]

Word family

  • Bäuerin
  • bäuerlich
  • bäurisch
  • Bauernhof
  • Bauernschaft
  • Bauernfänger
  • Bauernkrieg
  • bauen
  • Nachbar
  • English bower
  • English boor

Usage notes

A third Bauer, masculine with the genitive Bauers and the plural Bauer, means “builder” and is used almost only in compounds such as Orgelbauer and Schiffbauer; it is the agent noun of bauen.[11][12][19] Bauer is also a frequent surname.[7] Proverbs about the farmer include Die dümmsten Bauern haben die dicksten Kartoffeln, said of undeserved success.[17]

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 d e f g h i j k l m Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 97
  3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  4. ^ 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, 304
  5. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 64
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 133
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  8. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 754
  9. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1175
  11. ^ a b Duden. Deutsches Universalwörterbuch (2007), 6th ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  13. ^ a b c 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, 302
  14. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  15. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1176
  16. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  17. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  18. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  19. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 753