Brief

Forms

Brief m (genitive Briefes or Briefs, plural Briefe, diminutive Briefchen n or Brieflein n or Brieferl n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German brief, inherited from Old High German briaf, an early borrowed from Latin breve (“short writing, document”), the neuter of the adjective brevis (“short”).^[2][3][4][1] Pfeifer gives the source as the adjective (understood with libellus (“little book”)) or the Late Latin noun “short writing, deed”, recorded from the 6th century,^[3] and Duden 7 starts from a Vulgar Latin phrase meaning “short writing”.^[4] The same loan is Old Saxon brēf, Old Frisian brēf, Old Norse bréf, Middle Dutch brief and Middle Low German brēf.^[2][3][5]

The borrowing is early: the Latin /e/ had already been lengthened, so that it could become the Old High German diphthong ⟨ia⟩, and the ⟨f⟩ reflects a Latin /v/ already pronounced as a fricative.^[2][3] Old Norse, Old Saxon and Middle Low German keep the long /ē/, and the Scandinavian languages also keep the Latin neuter gender.^[3]

Old English had only the derived verb gebrēfan (“to write down briefly, sum up”), and Middle English bref was taken from Old French brief and used only as a legal term.^[5] For “letter” the Bible of Wulfila uses Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐍀𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌿𐌻𐌴 (aipistaule), taken from Ancient Greek ἐπιστολή (epistolḗ).^[5] A second borrowing of the Latin noun in the 15th century gave Breve, a papal letter.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German briaf is recorded from the 9th century in glosses, in Otfrid's Gospel book, in the Sankt Gallen Benedictine Rule and in Notker.^[6][7][2] Its senses were “writing, document, deed”, also “list” and “decree”, and the glosses translate Latin epistola, libellus, carta and breve with it;^[5][7][8] in briaf gineman meant “to write down”.^[5][7][8] In Middle High German, from the Kaiserchronik (about 1150) on, brief is a letter, a deed or any piece of writing.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

For a long time the word belonged chiefly to the language of the chancery, meaning an official writing or a deed.^[4][11] That sense survives in Brief und Siegel (14th century) and in compounds such as Freibrief “privilege” (14th century), Schuldbrief “bond” (15th century) and Steckbrief “description of a wanted person” (16th century), and in the verb verbriefen “to confirm by deed”.^[3][2][4] The modern sense “letter sent to someone” was carried at first by Sendbrief, recorded from the 12th century, which was shortened to Brief in Middle High German times.^[3][2][12]

Several compounds changed sense with the word: offener Brief was a public deed or proclamation in the 13th century and a letter printed in a newspaper from the 19th century; the Briefkasten was a chest for deeds in the 15th century and the post box from 1824; the Briefträger was a court messenger in the 14th century and the postman from the 18th.^[3][11] Adelung recorded the merchants' use of Brief for a bill of exchange, and the stock exchange still uses it for the asking price.^[13][14] The diminutive Briefchen also named a folded paper holding pins, needles or tobacco, as in a quotation of 1690.^[15][11]

Timeline

• 6th century – Late Latin breve “short writing, deed” is recorded.^[3]
• 9th century – Old High German briaf appears in glosses and in Otfrid.^[6][2]
• c. 1150 – Middle High German brief in the Kaiserchronik.^[9]
• 12th century – Sendbrief carries the sense “letter sent to someone”.^[3]
• 13th century – Offener Brief means a public deed or proclamation.^[3][11]
• 14th century – First record of the formula Brief und Siegel.^[3][11]
• 15th century – Breve is borrowed anew for a papal letter.^[5]
• 1644 – Harsdörffer proposes Briefwechsel as a German word for Korrespondenz.^[3]
• 1824 – Briefkasten is first used for the post box.^[3]
• Mid-19th century – Briefmarke “postage stamp” appears.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A letter: a written message sent in an envelope by post or messenger.^[14][1][16]
2. (stock exchange) Short for Briefkurs: the asking price of a security.^[14]
3. (dated) A deed or official document.^[14][17]

Word family

• verbriefen
• brieflich
• Briefkasten
• Briefträger
• Briefmarke
• Briefwechsel
• Sendbrief
• Freibrief
• Steckbrief
• Schuldbrief

Related words

• Breve
• Brevier
• Brimborium
• English brief

Usage notes

Ein blauer Brief (colloquial) is a letter of dismissal, or a school's warning to parents that their child may have to repeat a year; the name comes from the blue envelope in which officers were told of their discharge from 1870 on.^[14] Jemandem Brief und Siegel geben is to give someone a firm assurance: a deed in the old legal sense became valid only with its seal.^[14][4] An offener Brief is an open letter published in the press.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 151
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 332
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 60
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 352
11. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
12. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
13. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
14. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
15. ^ 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, 800
16. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
17. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de