Etymologically
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Baum

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Pronunciation

  • /baʊ̯m/, [baʊ̯m][1]

Forms

Baum m (genitive Baumes or Baums, plural Bäume, diminutive Bäumchen n or Bäumlein n)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German boum, inherited from Old High German boum, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *baum (“tree, beam”).[2][3][1][4] It took the place of the old word for “tree” that survives in English tree.[2] The same West Germanic word is Old Saxon bōm, Old English bēam (“tree, beam”), Old Frisian bām and Dutch boom, and English beam continues the Old English word.[2][3][4] Beside it stand Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌲𐌼𐍃 (bagms) and Old Norse baðmr, but how these forms are related to the West Germanic one, and so the origin of the word, is disputed and unclear.[2][3][4]

The traditional explanation, given by Pokorny, starts from Proto-Germanic *bagmaz as a “growth” of the root of bauen, Proto-Indo-European *bʰew- (“to grow, become”), and compares Ancient Greek φῦμα (phûma, “growth”);[3][2][5] Kluge finds the sound changes it needs unattested.[3][2][5] Kroonen rejects it because the oldest meaning was “beam” rather than “tree”, and connects the word with Proto-Germanic *bōguz (“shoulder, upper arm”) (English bough), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂ǵʰ-mo-; in this view an older /g/ became /w/ in West Germanic and /ð/ in Old Norse.[6] Kluge considers this source too but sees difficulties in it as well, and Kuiper took the word from a substrate language, a view Pfeifer also allows.[2][3] Duden calls its further origin unexplained.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German boum is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses.[3][8] Schützeichel gives the senses “tree, trunk, wood, beam, post” and finds it in the Wessobrunn Prayer, the Muspilli, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker; the EWA adds the beam of the Cross.[9][4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named both the living tree and a trunk put to some use, as a barrier, a shaft or the beam of a loom, a sense kept in Schlagbaum (Middle High German slahboum), Weberbaum, Mastbaum and Hebebaum.[7][10] A coffin made of planks was called Totenbaum, and in Swabia and Switzerland todabaum long named a child's coffin.[11] The umlauted plural Bäume is already in Luther (bewme).[11] Baumwolle “cotton”, Old High German boumwolla in a 12th-century manuscript, goes back to Herodotus' report of trees in India that bear wool.[3][10] The biblical tree of life and tree of knowledge gave fixed phrases, and the French Revolution its Freiheitsbaum.[12][10] The verb bäumen, now mostly sich aufbäumen, was in Middle High German said of horses rearing;[3][7] Duden thinks it was first a hunting word for a bear rising against a tree.[3][7] Mathematics and computing use Baum for a tree graph.[13]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German boum appears in glosses.[3][8]
  • 12th century – boumwolla “cotton” is recorded.[3]
  • 16th century – Luther writes the umlauted plural bewme.[11]
  • Early 16th century – Schlagbaum “barrier” is recorded.[3][10]
  • 17th century – Baumschule “tree nursery” appears.[7]
  • Late 18th century – Freiheitsbaum in the French Revolution.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tree, a woody plant with a firm trunk from which branches grow: Vor dem Haus steht ein alter Baum. Colloquial Bäume ausreißen können, to feel able to do anything;[13][1] zwischen Baum und Borke sitzen, to be in a dilemma.[13][1]
  2. (colloquial) Short for Weihnachtsbaum, a Christmas tree: Wir stellen den Baum erst am Heiligabend auf.[13][14]
  3. (mathematics, computing) A graph whose nodes are connected without any closed loop, so that any two are joined by exactly one path.[13][14]
  4. (nautical) A boom, the horizontal pole at the foot of a sail.[1][14]

Word family

  • Apfelbaum
  • Baumkrone
  • Baumkuchen
  • Baumschule
  • Baumwolle
  • baumwollen
  • bäumen
  • aufbäumen
  • Laubbaum
  • Nadelbaum
  • Schlagbaum
  • Stammbaum
  • Tannenbaum
  • Weihnachtsbaum

Usage notes

The phrase zwischen Baum und Borke sitzen (or stecken) “to be caught between two sides” pictures an axe jammed between the trunk and the bark while a tree is being hewn.[13] The proverb Die Bäume wachsen nicht in den Himmel says that every success has its limits.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 97
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 264
  5. ^ a b 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, 327
  6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 133
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 57
  10. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1188
  12. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  13. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  14. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org