Bevölkerung

Forms

Bevölkerung f (genitive Bevölkerung, plural Bevölkerungen)^[1]

Etymology

It is from German bevölkern (“to populate”) + -ung.^[1][2][3] The verb (17th century) is formed with the prefix be- from Volk “people”.^[4][5]

The noun is Old High German folc, Proto-Germanic *fulką (“troop of warriors; people”), the same word as Old Saxon folk, Old English folc (now English folk) and Old Norse folk.^[5][4][6] Its further origin is uncertain: Kluge, Pfeifer and Duden think it probably comes from the root of voll, Proto-Indo-European *pelh₁- (“to fill”), comparing Latin populus (“people”) and Ancient Greek πλῆθος (plêthos, “crowd, multitude”), so that the Germanic word first meant “the multitude of fighting men”.^[5][4][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Stieler's dictionary of 1691, in a list of formations with Volk, where Bevölkerung renders Latin “sending out colonists”.^[3] Pfeifer dates it to the end of the 17th century, Duden to the 18th.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word meant the act of populating, the settling of a land or the growth of its numbers: in 1732 a journal speaks of the first Bevölkerung of Europe, and a translation of Rousseau (1756) of the überschwängliche Bevölkerung “excessive increase of people” that the state of nature would bring.^[3] This sense became rare and was dying out in the 20th century.^[3][9] The Grimms already give the sense “inhabitants”, which is now the usual one; the Grimms' revision compares French population.^[10][3]

Timeline

• 1691 – First record, in Stieler's dictionary.^[3]
• 1732 – Used of the first settlement of Europe.^[3]
• 1756 – A translation of Rousseau uses it for the increase of people.^[3]
• 20th century – The sense “act of populating” dies out.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The population, all the inhabitants of an area: Die Bevölkerung wurde vor dem Sturm gewarnt.^[9][1]
2. (rare) The act of populating an area.^[9]

Word family

• Bevölkerungsdichte
• Weltbevölkerung
• Zivilbevölkerung

Related words

• bevölkern
• Volk
• völkisch
• English folk

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. 5, 55
4. ^ a b c d Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 962
6. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 451
7. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 910
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1757