Etymologically
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Ding

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Pronunciation

  • /dɪŋ/, /dɪŋk/[1]

Forms

Ding n (genitive Dinges or Dings, plural Dinge or Dinger, diminutive Dinglein n)[1] The plural Dinger appears from the end of the 13th century, at first mainly in East Central German and Low German; from about the 17th century Dinge is used for objects and matters and Dinger for disparaging uses.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German dinc, inherited from Old High German thing, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *þing, inherited from Proto-Germanic *þingą (“assembly; appointed time”).[4][5][1] The same word is Old Saxon thing, Old Frisian thing, Old English þing, Old Norse þing, Dutch ding and English thing.[4][6][7] Kluge, Pfeifer and Kroonen connect it with Gothic 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌷𐍃 (þeihs, “time, occasion”).[4][5][6]

The Germanic word named the assembly of the free men, where law was spoken and decisions taken.[5][8] The present meaning grew out of “what is discussed at the assembly, a legal case”, which was generalized to “matter” and then “object”, as with Sache and with French chose from Latin causa (“legal case”).[4][2] Pfeifer and Kroonen think that the oldest sense was “appointed time”, which would also explain the Gothic word.[5][6]

Its further origin is uncertain.[4] Pfeifer and Duden derive it from Proto-Indo-European *ten- (“to stretch, draw”) through an extended form Proto-Indo-European *tenk-, with Latin tempus (“time”) and Old Irish tan (“time”);[5][8] Kroonen and Wiktionary connect it with the verb Proto-Germanic *þinhaną (“to succeed, be suitable”), so that the first meaning was “suitable time”.[6][1] Kluge also weighs Middle Irish téchtae (“lawful”) and holds that no certain decision is possible yet.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German thing, ding is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses, then in the Hildebrandslied, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[4][9][10] It meant a court, a court day and its session, an assembly, a legal case, and also a matter or affair; in the Hildebrandslied it is a fight.[10][2] The sense “object” appears only from the 11th century.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German dinc still meant a court until the end of the Middle Ages, and the old sense lives on in Scandinavian words for an assembly or parliament (Norwegian Storting, Danish Folketing) and in the historicizing German form Thing.[8] Beside it, “matter, affair” and “object” spread, and in medieval philosophy ding could also mean “being, essence”.[5][2]

From the 14th century the word is used for a person or thing that cannot or should not be named, and since the 17th century, often disparagingly, for a girl or young person (ein armes Ding).[5] The philosophical Ding an sich (“thing in itself”) is first recorded in Reimarus in 1760 and became frequent through Kant;[5][11] English took it over as Ding an sich in 1846.[12] Old adverbial genitives such as aller Dinge gave allerdings, neuerdings and schlechterdings, with a secondary -s.[13] In thieves' cant ein Ding drehen meant “to pull off a burglary”, whence it passed, softened, into colloquial speech.[13]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German thing appears in glosses.[4][9]
  • 11th century – First record of the sense “object”.[2]
  • Late 13th century – The plural Dinger appears.[2][3]
  • 14th century – Used for persons or things that are not named.[5]
  • 16th century – Dings “thingummy” becomes a word of its own, from a partitive genitive.[8]
  • 17th century – Ding is used of girls and young people;[5][2] Dinge and Dinger begin to divide the senses.[5][2]
  • 1760 – Ding an sich is recorded in Reimarus.[5]
  • 1846 – English borrows Ding an sich.[12]
  • 19th century – dingfest machen “to arrest” is recorded.[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A thing or object that is not named more precisely (plural Dinge): Sie packte ihre Dinge in einen Koffer.[14][1]
  2. (colloquial) Something one cannot or will not name, often disparaging (plural Dinger): Wozu ist dieses Ding da?[14]
  3. A matter or affair (plural Dinge), as in vor allen Dingen “above all” and guter Dinge sein “to be in good spirits”.[13][15]
  4. (colloquial) A girl or young person, said fondly or with pity: ein armes Ding.[5][1]
  5. (colloquial) ein Ding drehen: to commit a crime or pull off a trick.[14][13]
  6. (historical) The Germanic assembly, usually spelled Thing.[1][8]
  7. (slang) The penis.[1]

Word family

  • dinglich
  • Dings
  • Dingsda
  • Unding
  • Dingens
  • Dingsbums
  • Dinggedicht
  • dingen
  • dingfest
  • allerdings
  • bedingen

Usage notes

Aller guten Dinge sind drei (“all good things come in threes”) is said to justify doing something a third time.[14] Mit rechten Dingen zugehen “to happen in a natural way, without trickery” is recorded from the 18th century.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 649
  3. ^ 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. 6, 1081
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 202
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 223
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 72
  11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 1152
  12. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  15. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org