Etymologically
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Bereich

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Pronunciation

  • /bəˈʁaɪ̯ç/[1]

Forms

Bereich m (genitive Bereiches or Bereichs, plural Bereiche)[1] At first the word was also neuter, as in Goethe's Faust II (line 6195), and das Bereich is still recorded as rare.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a back-formation, from Middle High German bereichen (“to reach as far as, extend over”), made in the 18th century.[4][5] That verb, which matches Middle Dutch bereiken, is formed with be- from reichen (“to reach, extend”), the ancestor of reichen.[4][6][5] Pfeifer calls the noun an abstract formed from the verb, which itself died out in the 18th century.[5] The simple verb goes back to Proto-West Germanic *raikjan, like English reach, and Pfeifer derives it from a root Proto-Indo-European *rēig̑- (“to stretch out, reach out with the hand”).[5]

According to Kluge the new word took over the general meaning of the older Reich, which narrowed to “dominion, realm”, and the contact between them led to confusion of gender, and of pronunciation in dialects that still keep the vowels of Middle High German apart.[4] Pfeifer explains the wavering between masculine and neuter in the same way.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In legal language Bereich meant a levy or due as early as the 16th century, while the general sense “area within certain limits” appears at the end of the 18th century.[5] Paul calls it a young word, found in Heynatz's Antibarbarus and in Goethe from 1815.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word soon became common and replaced Reich in the sense “domain, sphere”.[2][5] The Grimms' dictionary quotes Goethe for the range of guns: during the siege of Mainz he saw a farmer at work im bereich der kanonen “within range of the cannons”.[7] The phrase im Bereich des Möglichen is recorded by Sanders in the 19th century.[2] At the start of the 19th century the noun was borrowed into Dutch as bereik.[2] In German wine law it names a group of vineyard sites whose wines are alike in character.[1][8]

Timeline

  • 16th century – In legal language Bereich means a levy.[5]
  • 18th century – The verb bereichen falls out of use.[5]
  • Late 18th century – Bereich “area, sphere” appears.[5][4]
  • 1815 – Goethe begins to use the word.[2]
  • Early 19th century – Dutch borrows it as bereik.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An area or zone with certain limits: Im Bereich des Bahnhofs wird gebaut.[3][1]
  2. A field, sector or sphere of activity or knowledge: Sie arbeitet im Bereich der Medizintechnik.[3][1][8]
  3. (wine) A wine region made up of several sites.[1][8]
  4. (mathematics) An algebraic structure resembling the integers.[8]

Usage notes

Im Bereich des Möglichen liegen means “to be quite possible”.[3][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 110
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1495
  8. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org