Chor

Forms

Chor m (genitive Chores or Chors, plural Chöre)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kōr, inherited from Old High German chōr, borrowed from Latin chorus (“dance; band of singers”), from Ancient Greek χορός (khorós), borrowed in the 9th century.^[2][3][4] In ancient Greece the word named the dancing floor and a group of dancers, then the song and dance performed for the gods.^[2][3] Duden calls the Greek word not securely explained and suggests a link with Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to grasp, enclose”), the root of Garten, with the original sense “enclosed dancing floor”.^[5] The same word is Dutch koor, French chœur and English chorus.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German chōr appears in Tatian's gospel harmony of about 830, where the elder son hears sang inti chor “song and choral singing”, and in the glosses.^[6][7][8] It meant the common singing of the clergy in church.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

From the singers the word passed in the church to the place where they stood before the altar, and then to the part of the church reserved for the clergy, which Pfeifer finds in a 12th-century manuscript.^[2][3] In Middle High German it meant both the singers and that part of the building, and also the body of canons who met there.^[3][10] Already in Middle High German it was used for secular singers too, and later for a group of similar instruments, for the chorus of Greek tragedy and for any singing and dancing group on stage.^[11][4]

Under the influence of French corps the word was also used, often as a neuter, for any band or crowd of people, as in Goethe's ein ganzes Chor von hunderttausend Narren.^[11][12] The derivatives include Choral (1566), shortened from Choralgesang, Latin cantus choralis, and Choreographie, which goes back to the older sense “dance”.^[11][2]

Timeline

• c. 830 – Old High German chōr in Tatian.^[6][8]
• 1060–1080 – Middle High German kōr in the Genesis.^[10]
• 12th century – First record for the part of the church, in a manuscript.^[3]
• 1566 – First record of Choral.^[11]
• 18th century – First record of Chorist.^[3]
• 19th century – Choreograph and Choreographie are formed.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A choir, a group of people who sing together: Sie singt seit Jahren im Kirchenchor.;^[9][1] im Chor, all together, in unison.^[9][1]
2. A group of similar instruments in an orchestra, or their players: ein Chor von Posaunen.^[9]
3. (theatre) The chorus, a group of actors who comment on the action, as in ancient tragedy.^[9]
4. A composition for a choir; singing by a choir.^[9]
5. (music) A set of strings tuned to the same pitch, as on a lute; the pipes of a mixture stop of an organ that belong to one key.^[9]
6. (architecture) The choir of a church, the part with the high altar, usually facing east: ein romanischer Chor.^[9][1]
7. The place for the singers in the organ gallery.^[9]
8. (regional, derogatory; neuter) A rabble.^[9]

Word family

• Choral
• Chorist
• Chorgestühl
• Chorherr
• Kirchenchor
• Männerchor

Related words

• Choreographie
• English choir

Usage notes

Chor is masculine, but the church choir and the organ loft were often neuter, and Adelung records the neuter for groups of singers in Upper Saxony; the neuter survives in the derogatory regional sense “rabble”.^[13][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 172
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
5. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 184
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 617
13. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf