Eindruck

Forms

Eindruck m (genitive Eindruckes or Eindrucks, plural Eindrücke)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German îndruc, formed from the verb îndrucken (“to press in, imprint”) (today eindrücken), but surely not without the influence of Latin impressiō (“impression”).^[2][3][1] Paul, Duden and Wiktionary treat it as a loan translation of the Latin noun by the mystics, above all Meister Eckhart.^[4][5][1] The revised Grimm dictionary calls the origin uncertain: probably from the verb, though a prefixed form of Druck following the Latin model cannot be ruled out.^[6]

The verb goes back to Old High German inthrucken (“to stamp, impress”), recorded in a manuscript of the 12th century; its base drücken is Old High German thrucken, an intensive verb Proto-Germanic *þrukkjan.^[3] Dutch indruk corresponds to it, and Swedish intryck and Danish indtryk were modelled on the German noun.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German îndruc occurs almost only in mystical texts, as in Meister Eckhart (about 1300): ez mac des himels îndruck sîn (“it may be the influence of heaven”).^[6] It meant an effect or influence on the soul, transferred from the impression of a seal, as in the Song of Songs: “set me as a seal upon thine heart”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

From the 15th to the late 17th century the word is rare and found mainly in religious writing; the Pietists revived it, and it became frequent in the 18th century.^[6][4][3] Then phrases such as einen guten Eindruck machen (“to make a good impression”) and einen tiefen Eindruck hinterlassen became common, and Lessing could write of a Jewish girl who auf dich Eindruck machte.^[3][7] In the concrete sense of a mark pressed into something (a footprint, a seal in wax) the word has always been rare.^[2][7] For the mental effect the verb eindrücken has been replaced by beeindrucken, a journalistic coinage of the end of the 19th century.^[4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – Meister Eckhart uses îndruc of a spiritual influence.^[6]
• 14th century – Kluge's date for the word.^[2]
• 1633 – Czepko writes of der Eindruck der Gestirne “the influence of the stars”.^[6]
• 18th century – Eindruck machen becomes common.^[3][7]
• Late 19th century – The verb beeindrucken is coined.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. An impression: the effect that something seen or experienced leaves in the mind, shaping one's idea of a person or thing: Sie machte auf alle einen guten Eindruck.^[5][1][8]
2. A mark or imprint pressed into something: der Eindruck eines Fußes im Schnee.^[5][8]

Related words

• eindrücken
• beeindrucken
• Druck
• Ausdruck
• drücken

Usage notes

Eindruck schinden (colloquial) is to show off so as to impress others.^[5] A separate noun Eindruck “printing in, typographic imprint”, from the verb eindrucken, was recorded by Adelung in 1774 and survives only in dictionaries.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 234
3. ^ 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
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ 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. 7, 568
7. ^ 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. 3, 164
8. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
9. ^ 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. 7, 570
10. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf