Buch

Forms

Buch n (genitive Buches or Buchs, plural Bücher, diminutive Büchlein n or Büchelchen n)^[1] In the 8th and 9th centuries the plural was usually declined as a feminine, later as a neuter.^[2] The Middle High German plural was buoch, later also buoche and buocher.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German buoch, inherited from Old High German buoh, inherited from Proto-Germanic *bōks.^[3][4][1] The same word is Old Saxon bōk, Old English bōc, Old Frisian bōk, Old Norse bók and Gothic 𐌱𐍉𐌺𐌰 (bōka), which means “letter of the alphabet” in the singular and “document, book” in the plural.^[3][4][2] The Germanic noun was originally a feminine root noun; the shift to the neuter happened early, already in Old High German.^[4][2]

Kluge starts from the sense “letter (character)”, kept in Gothic and in traces in Old High German.^[3] The use of its plural for “a writing, a book” matches Ancient Greek γράμμα (grámma) and Latin littera, and Kluge thinks it was modelled on the classical languages;^[3] West Germanic then formed a singular for “book”.^[3] The sense “letter” was borrowed into Slavic, as in Russian буква (búkva).^[3]

The traditional etymology, going back to Jacob Grimm, identifies the word with the name of the Buche, as if the first books were tablets of beech wood on which runes were cut.^[5][4] The Duden and Kroonen still hold this view; the Duden points out that the boards of book covers were made almost always of beech until the 16th century.^[6][7] Kluge rejects it on formal grounds, since the noun for “letter” was a root noun while the tree name was a feminine ō-stem, and on factual ones, since runes are nowhere recorded as written on beech tablets.^[3] Pfeifer also doubts it and, with Kluge, compares Sanskrit भग (bhága, “wealth, fortune, share”), Sanskrit भाग (bhāgá, “share, lot”), Avestan baga- (“share, lot”) and Old Church Slavonic богъ (bogŭ, “god”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhag- (“to allot”); the Germanic word would first have meant “lot”, then the rune stick used for drawing lots, and then a letter.^[4][3] Paul calls the connection with the tree name possible, and notes that doubting it does not make the etymology easier.^[8] Szemerényi proposed a borrowing from Turkic.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German buoh is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses and in the Benedictine Rule of about 790–802, meaning a book or a written document, the Holy Scriptures, and once perhaps a letter of the alphabet.^{[3][9][10][2]} The plural was often used for a single book, as in Middle High German an den buochen lesen “to read in the book”.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

From the plural for one written document the word passed to the codex of parchment and then to any bound or stitched set of sheets, and today above all to the printed book.^[11][8] It is also used for a part of a larger work, as in das fünfte Buch Mose in Luther's Bible, and for blank books for writing in, such as Tagebuch and Kirchenbuch.^[8][11] From the 14th century it was used for a merchant's account book, mostly in the plural.^[8] The Grimms and Adelung record it for the third stomach of ruminants, whose folds look like the leaves of a book.^[5][12]

Several derivatives and compounds came in from neighbouring languages: Buchhalter (16th century) is formed from the phrase die Bücher halten, which since the 15th century has translated Italian tenere i libri;^[11] Bücherei (17th century) translates Dutch boekerij; the verb buchen “to enter in an account book” (18th century) probably follows Dutch boeken and English to book, and Buchmacher (second half of the 19th century) translates English bookmaker.^[11] The Bücherwurm was at first a larva living in books and since the 17th century a jocular name for a scholar.^[11][13]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German buoh is recorded.^[3][4]
• c. 790–802 – The plural pvah is used in the Benedictine Rule.^[10]
• 14th century – The word is used for an account book.^[8]
• 15th century – die Bücher halten translates Italian tenere i libri.^[11]
• 16th century – Buchhalter is formed.^[11]
• 17th century – Bücherei and the figurative Bücherwurm appear.^[11]
• 18th century – buchen appears in commerce.^[11]
• Second half of the 19th century – Buchmacher is formed after English bookmaker.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A book, a larger bound printed work: ein Buch mit festem Einband.^[14][1]
2. A literary or scholarly work published as a book: Ihr neues Buch erscheint im Herbst.^[14]
3. (dated) A part or division of a larger work: die fünf Bücher Mose.^[14][8]
4. Short for Drehbuch: a screenplay.^[14][15]
5. A bound volume of blank or printed pages for writing in, such as a notebook.^[14]
6. (usually plural) Account books, the books: die Bücher führen “to keep the books”.^[14][1]
7. (horse racing) The betting list kept by a Buchmacher.^[14][15]
8. An old unit for counting paper, 24 or 25 sheets, and gold or silver leaf.^[14][11]
9. (zoology, rare) The omasum, the third stomach of ruminants.^[1][5][12]

Word family

• Buchstabe
• buchen
• Bücherei
• Büchlein
• Buchhalter
• Buchhandlung
• Buchmacher
• Bücherwurm
• Tagebuch
• Drehbuch
• Gesetzbuch
• Lehrbuch
• Wörterbuch

Related words

• Buche
• English book

Usage notes

Wie er im Buche steht “as described in the book” means typical, a model of its kind, originally with reference to the Bible.^[14][11] Something that is ein Buch mit sieben Siegeln “a book with seven seals” is incomprehensible; the phrase comes from Revelation 5.^[14][13] English Wiktionary takes the rare sense “omasum” from Old High German būh “belly”, while the Grimms and Adelung explain it from the leaves of a book.^[1][5][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 445
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 157
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 466
6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 173
7. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b 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, 931
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 172
12. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
13. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
15. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org