Bild

Forms

Bild n (genitive Bildes or Bilds, plural Bilder, diminutive Bildchen n)^[1] Until the 17th century the plural was also bilde or bilden;^[2][3] Luther wavers between bilde and bilder.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bilde, inherited from Old High German bilidi, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *biliþi.^[4][5][1] Early Upper German also had biladi and bilodi; the form with -idi, which Franconian and Old Saxon had, became general in the 10th century.^[3][6] The word is found only on the continent: Old Saxon biliði (“sign, likeness”), Old Frisian bild and Dutch beeld.^[4][5] Late Old Norse bílæti was borrowed from Low German and adapted to læti (“behaviour”),^[4] and Swedish bild and Danish billede were taken from German.^[7]

It was formed with the collective suffix Proto-Germanic *-iþja- from a stem *bil- that has no certain explanation.^[5][4] Kluge posits a lost noun of this stem meaning something like “model, measure”, which would also explain Weichbild, Unbill and billig, but notes that there is no evidence for it.^[4] Other proposals start from “sign, omen” (Foerste) or “spiritual being” (Karg-Gasterstädt);^[5] the Duden, comparing Bilwiss “goblin”, sets up a stem “wonder-working power, wonder sign”.^[8][9] Jacob Grimm took the stem from a verb “to hew, shape”, so that the image would be “that which is shaped”.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German bilidi is first recorded in a gloss of the 8th century, and biladi in the Abrogans, the Samanunga and the Benedictine Rule.^[3][6][10] Kluge gives “model, pattern” as the oldest sense.^[4] The Old High German word also meant “example, parable”, as in Isidor and Otfrid, “likeness, image”, “form, shape” and, in Notker, “idea, concept”.^[3][2][11]

Semantic evolution

The sense “form, figure” survives in Mannsbild and Weibsbild, which were not disparaging until the 19th century.^[5][12] For a long time a Bild was above all a work of sculpture or casting, as in Luther's idols, Bildhauer and Bildsäule; only later was it restricted to the painter's work, while from the mid-19th century it was also used for photographs.^[12][5] It entered philosophy with Notker, the mystics and Christian Wolff.^[5]

The phrases im Bilde sein “to be informed” and ins Bild setzen depend on sich ein Bild machen “to form an idea” and seem to have arisen in military planning.^[4][8] Hungarian példa (“example, parable”), recorded in 1372, is listed as a loan from the German word.^[13]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German bilidi appears in a gloss.^[3][14]
• 863–871 – Otfrid uses bilidi for parables.^[2]
• 1372 – Hungarian példa is recorded.^[13]
• 15th century – Mannsbild and Weibsbild are written as one word;^[5] bildhower “sculptor” appears.^[8]
• 17th century – Urbild is coined to render archetypus.^[5]
• Mid-19th century – Bild and Lichtbild are used for photographs.^[12][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A picture: a painting, drawing or print.^[9][1]
2. A photograph; a picture on a screen.^[9][1]
3. A likeness, reflection: sein Bild im Wasser.^[9]
4. A sight, view: Der Hafen bot ein friedliches Bild.^[9]
5. A mental picture, impression, idea: sich ein Bild von etwas machen.^[9][1]
6. (theatre) A scene played in one setting.^[15]
7. A metaphor, figurative expression.^[15]
8. (mathematics) The image of an element under a function.^[15]

Word family

• Abbild
• Ebenbild
• Vorbild
• Urbild
• Gebilde
• Bildnis
• bildlich
• bilden
• Bildhauer
• bildschön
• Mannsbild
• Weibsbild
• Lichtbild
• Bildschirm

Related words

• billig
• Unbill
• Weichbild
• Bilwiss

Usage notes

Ein Bild für die Götter is a comically grotesque sight, and ein Bild von einem Mann a very handsome man.^[9] Paul records im Bild sein as Austrian.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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, 217
3. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 50
4. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 122
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de
7. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 8
8. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 170
9. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 1, 1028
11. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 49
12. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
13. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
15. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org