Behörde

Forms

Behörde f (genitive Behörde, plural Behörden)^[1]

Etymology

It is a chancery formation from Middle Low German behören (“to belong to, be due”), which corresponds to High German behœren (“to belong, be fitting”) and to the modern gehören.^[2][3][1][4] The verb is formed with be- from hören.^[3][4] Kluge stresses the Low German use of the verb for “to belong to”, while Pfeifer and the Duden connect it with the older High German verb.^[2][3][4]

The noun first meant “what is due or proper”, then “the place where something belongs”.^[3][4] The sense “public office” most likely comes from the phrase “at the appropriate place” (behörigen Orts), recorded from the middle of the 17th century, so that the word is properly “the office to which a matter belongs”.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge, Pfeifer and the 2014 Duden date the word to the 17th century, while the 2007 Duden says the 18th.^[2][3][4][5] The revised Grimm dictionary's first quotation is from Grimmelshausen's Simplicissimus (1670), where two letters are to be sent the next day ihrer behörde, to their proper recipients.^[6] In this first sense it meant the rightful destination or recipient of something.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century the word was still general: Adelung gives “what is proper or needed”, “what belongs to something” (the appurtenance, now Zubehör) and “the proper place”, especially a court of the right instance, and says it was most frequent in Upper German.^[7] Goethe could still use it for “duty, office”: in Reineke Fuchs (1794) the king is told that punishing robbery and murder is his highest Behörde.^[6][8]

From the end of the 18th century it narrowed to “government office”,^[8][6] and in the 19th century compounds such as Ortsbehörde, Gerichtsbehörde and Polizeibehörde appeared.^[8] The adjective behördlich “official” is recorded from the second half of the 19th century.^[3] Today the word also covers church authorities and the building that houses an office.^[8][9]

Timeline

• Mid-17th century – The phrase behörigen Orts “at the appropriate place” appears.^[3]
• 1670 – Grimmelshausen uses Behörde for the proper recipient of letters.^[6]
• 1753 – A Bavarian legal code requires appeals to be handed in bey der behörde.^[6]
• 1794 – Goethe uses the word for “duty, office” in Reineke Fuchs.^[6][8]
• Late 18th century – Behörde comes to mean “government office”.^[8]
• Second half of the 19th century – behördlich is recorded.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A public authority: a state, municipal or church office that carries out administrative tasks: Die Behörde hat den Antrag abgelehnt.^[9][1]
2. The seat or building of such an office: Er muss morgen früh auf die Behörde.^[9]
3. (obsolete) Duty, task, office.^[9][8]

Word family

• behördlich
• behördlicherseits

Related words

• gehören
• hören
• Zubehör
• gehörig

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. 104
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 159
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ 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. 4, 703
7. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
8. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag