Blick

Forms

Blick m (genitive Blickes or Blicks, plural Blicke)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German blic, inherited from Old High German blik, inherited from Proto-Germanic *blikaz (“shine, gleam”).^[2][1][3] The same word is Middle Low German blick, Middle Dutch blic, Dutch blik, Old English blice and Old Norse blik.^[2][4] Kluge treats the noun together with the verb blicken, while the Revised Grimm calls the noun a back-formation from the verb.^[5][4]

Kluge derives the group from Proto-Germanic *blekk- or *blikk- with intensive gemination, which can be connected either with *bleik- (“to shine”) or with a verb *blek- (“to gleam”).^[5] It is thus related to bleich, Blech, blecken and Blitz.^[5][6][7] Wiktionary and Köbler take it back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰleyǵ- (“to shine”), Köbler with a question mark.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German blic is recorded in glosses of the 9th or 10th century and in Notker, meaning “flash, lightning, beam of light, gleam”.^[3][2] Notker (before 1022) speaks of the gleam of the inner sweetness appearing to the running waters.^[4] The verb biblicken is older, from the 8th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle High German blic was the ordinary word for lightning, and Luther still wrote of Blicken des Blitzes;^[7] Goethe's Werther has a neighbour who sah den Blick vom Pulver (“saw the flash of the powder”).^[7] Miners spoke of the Silberblick, the sudden gleam of silver in the furnace.^[7][8] The shift to the eye began in Old High German and was complete in Middle High German: the quick look of the eye was understood as a beam of light sent out by it.^[2][7][5] Middle High German ougenblic meant both “a flash of the eyes” and the short span of a glance, the modern Augenblick.^[2]

The word then also came to mean what one sees, a view or outlook, and judgement or discernment (einen Blick für etwas haben).^[7][9] Blickfeld was entered in the Duden in 1929 and Blickfang, modelled on English eye-catcher, in 1937.^[7] Polish blik (1689) and Russian блик (blik) (1725) borrowed it as a painter's term for a highlight.^[10]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German biblicken is recorded.^[2]
• 9th–10th century – blic appears in glosses, meaning “flash, gleam”.^[3][2]
• Before 1022 – Notker uses the word for a gleam of light.^[4]
• About 1195 – Hartmann writes of the sunnen blic, the sun's light.^[4]
• 1689 – Polish borrows blik as a painting term.^[10]
• 1725 – Russian блик is recorded.^[10]
• 1929 – Blickfeld appears in the Duden.^[7]
• 1937 – Blickfang appears in the Duden.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A glance, a look: Sie warf einen kurzen Blick auf die Uhr.^[9][1]
2. One's eyes as directed somewhere: den Blick senken.^[9]
3. The expression of the eyes: ein misstrauischer Blick.^[9]
4. A view, an outlook: ein Hotel mit Blick auf die Berge.^[9][1]
5. Judgement, an eye for something: einen Blick für Details haben.^[9]
6. (dated) A sudden flash of light.^[9][7]

Word family

• Augenblick
• Anblick
• Ausblick
• Blickwinkel
• Blickfang
• Blickfeld
• Rundblick
• Tunnelblick
• Überblick

Related words

• blicken
• bleich
• Blech
• blecken
• Blitz

Usage notes

Auf den ersten Blick “at first sight” and einen Blick werfen “to cast a glance” are recorded by Adelung.^[7] Der böse Blick is the evil eye.^[9] The Grimms also record a separate Blick, a name of a small fish (the bleak), which Hohberg describes.^[11]

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 Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b c d e 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, 417
5. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 133
6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 155
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 116