Etymologically
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Entwicklung

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Pronunciation

  • /ɛntˈvɪklʊŋ/[1]

Forms

Entwicklung f (genitive Entwicklung, plural Entwicklungen)[1] The older form Entwickelung predominated until the early 19th century.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from German entwickeln + -ung, first recorded in the 17th century.[1][3][4] Wiktionary suggests a calque of French développement.[1]

The verb entwickeln was formed with ent- from wickeln “to wind, wrap” at the end of the 16th century.[3][5] According to Kluge it arose under the influence of Latin explicō (“to unfold, explain”) and French évoluer, and so it was almost never used in the literal sense “to unwind”.[6][4] The base wickeln comes from Wickel, Old High German wickel (“bundle of fibres”), a diminutive of the noun that is English wick in English, from the root Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to weave”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul gives the first record as Zesen in 1645, in the older form Entwickelung.[4] The earliest dictionary examples have the literal senses of the verb: “release, extrication” (Duez, 1664) and “unwinding” (Stieler, 1691, Kramer, 1693, for Italian disviluppamento).[2]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning of the 18th century the noun followed the verb into abstract use,[4][3] and it became widely used from the late 18th century.[2] It was a central idea of German idealism and in the 19th century one of the dominant terms of almost every science.[2] Around 1800 Campe proposed it as a German word for Evolution, with Entwicklungslehre for the theory of evolution.[3][4] The photographic sense of entwickeln dates from the 19th century;[3][4] Paul compares English develop.[3][4] In the 20th century came political compounds such as Entwicklungshilfe “development aid” and Entwicklungsland “developing country”.[4][1] The German word was calqued as Russian развитие (razvitije).[1]

Timeline

  • End of the 16th century – The verb entwickeln appears.[3][5]
  • 1645 – Zesen uses Entwickelung.[4]
  • 1664 – Duez's dictionary records it in the sense “release, extrication”.[2]
  • Early 18th century – The noun is applied to abstract matters.[4]
  • c. 1800 – Campe proposes it for Evolution.[3]
  • 19th century – entwickeln is used in photography.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Gradual emergence, the coming into being of something step by step.[8][9]
  2. Growth, maturing: the physical and mental development of a child, the growth of a plant.[8][9]
  3. Progress into a new phase; a trend: die Entwicklung der Preise.[8][1]
  4. The creation or design of something new, such as a product or a process: die Entwicklung eines Impfstoffs.[8][9]
  5. The detailed setting out of ideas or a theory.[8]
  6. (photography) The developing of a film.[8][9]
  7. (military) The deployment of troops for battle.[8]
  8. (biology) evolution.[1][3]

Word family

  • Entwicklungsland
  • Entwicklungshilfe
  • Entwicklungslehre
  • Unterentwicklung
  • Weiterentwicklung

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 8, 1532
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 f g h i j 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 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. 8, 1530
  6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 249
  7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 932
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  9. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org