Berliner

Forms

Berliner m (genitive Berliners, plural Berliner, feminine Berlinerin)^[1] As an adjective the word is indeclinable and used only before a noun.^[1] Adelung already describes it as an invariable adjective.^[2]

Etymology

It is from German Berlin + -er, the name of the city with the suffix that forms names of inhabitants.^[1][3][4] The same form serves as an indeclinable adjective “of Berlin”.^[1][2]

The name of the pastry, recorded from the 19th century, is shortened from a phrase with Pfannkuchen “pancake”,^[5][6][1] and Wiktionary also gives a fuller form with Ballen “ball”.^[1] The German-language Wiktionary says that the pastry was first made in Berlin around 1756 as the “Berlin pancake”, and regions shortened that name in either direction, keeping only the adjective or only the noun.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Adelung (1793) records the noun for a person born in or coming from Berlin, with the feminine Berlinerin, and the adjective for works of art invented or made there: Berliner Blau, the blue pigment also called Prussian blue, invented in Berlin at the beginning of the 18th century, and das Berliner Eisen, a fox trap with two hoops.^[2] Campe (1807) adds a light four-seated travelling coach invented in Berlin, also called die Berline, and names Berliner Porzellan.^[7]

The pastry name spread in the 19th century; cookery books of the late 19th century give recipes for Berliner Pfannkuchen across the German-speaking area.^[3][5] English took Berliner “a native or inhabitant of Berlin” in 1859.^[8] In Czech and Slovak the word became Czech perlinčan (“Protestant”).^[8]

Timeline

• 1793 – Adelung records the noun and the adjective, as in Berliner Blau.^[2]
• 1807 – Campe records Berliner for a travelling coach invented in Berlin.^[7]
• 1859 – English borrows Berliner “inhabitant of Berlin”.^[8]
• 19th century – Berliner appears as a shortening of Berliner Pfannkuchen.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A native or inhabitant of Berlin: Ihr Großvater war ein echter Berliner.^[4][1][3]
2. A round doughnut of yeast dough, fried in fat and usually filled with jam and dusted with sugar.^[1][3][5]

Adjective

1. Of, from or relating to Berlin (indeclinable, only before a noun): die Berliner Museen, ein Berliner Verlag.^[1][2]

Word family

• Berlinerin

Related words

• Berlin
• Pfannkuchen

Usage notes

Kluge records a separate, archaic Berliner from thieves' cant, meaning the knapsack of travelling journeymen; it may be a reinterpretation of Latin pellīnus “made of skin”, and after it the cant formed Charlottenburger for a shoulder bag and Potsdamer for a small travelling bundle, from districts of Berlin.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 883
3. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 111
6. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
7. ^ a b Campe, Joachim Heinrich (1807–1811), Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache, 5 vols., Braunschweig: Schulbuchhandlung, p. 1, 472b
8. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de