Experte

Forms

Experte m (genitive Experten, plural Experten, feminine Expertin)^[1] In the 19th century the form Expert was also used.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French expert (“expert; experienced”), borrowed in the early 19th century.^[3][4][2][5] This goes back to Latin expertus (“experienced, tried, proven”), the past participle of experior (“to try, test”), the verb behind Experiment.^[3][4][2] The same loan is found in Dutch expert, English expert and Swedish expert.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record (1830) is legal: the evidence of inspection is usually combined with die Zuziehung Sachverständiger (Experten) “calling in experts”, whose findings the judge checks with his own senses.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The word was first used of legal and commercial matters; a commercial dictionary of 1836 glosses Expert as “expert witness”.^[2] It then spread to cultural, economic and political life, meaning a person, often a scholar, with outstanding knowledge of a field, as opposed to a layman; it is sometimes positive, “particularly competent”, and often negative, “elitist, arrogant”.^[2] Many compounds name the field, such as Finanzexperte and Wirtschaftsexperte.^[7] Expertise “expert's report”, from French expertise, is recorded in 1843.^[7][4]

Timeline

• 1830 – First record, in legal language.^[2][6]
• 1835 – Schweizer's dictionary of foreign words has Expertenbericht “experts' report”.^[7]
• 1836 – Expert in a dictionary of commercial language.^[2]
• 1843 – Expertise appears in Kaltschmidt's dictionary of foreign words.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An expert, a specialist with special knowledge of a field: ein Experte für Arbeitsrecht.^[8][1][9]

Word family

• Expertin
• Expertise

Related words

• Experiment
• English expert

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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
3. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 267
4. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 249
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, p. 8, 2512
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag