Fahrer

Forms

Fahrer m (genitive Fahrers, plural Fahrer)^[1]

Etymology

It is the agent noun from German fahren + -er, Middle High German varer.^[2][3] In late Middle High German and Early New High German it was rare on its own and commoner as the second part of compounds such as Landfahrer and Seefahrer; the modern word for the driver of a car is a 20th-century shortening of Kraftfahrer.^[3]

The verb is Middle High German varn, Old High German faran, from Proto-Germanic *faraną, the same word as Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌽 (faran), Old Norse fara and Old English faran, whence fare.^[2][4] It belongs to Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to pierce, bring across”), with Ancient Greek πορεύω (poreúō, “I carry, (middle) I go”) and Latin portō (“to carry”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record, from a Rhineland document of the first half of the 15th century, uses fahrer for a boatman on the Rhine, and a Bavarian mining law of 1616 for a man shipping salt.^[3] The Grimms' dictionary gives the senses “traveller” and “driver of a vehicle”, quoting Weiße's herr fahrer, hinten darauf!, “Mister driver, up on the back!”, said from a sleigh.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Adelung (1793) knew the word only in compounds such as Bergenfahrer, Grönlandsfahrer and Seefahrer.^[6] Pfeifer dates the sense “driver of a horse-drawn vehicle” to the 18th century.^[4] In the 20th century it chiefly names the driver of a motor car;^[3] Georg Heym wrote in 1904 seht der kaiser reicht die hand dem fahrer, “look, the emperor gives the driver his hand”.^[3] It was borrowed as Slovene forar (“carter”).^[7]

Timeline

• First half of the 15th century – fahrer is used of a Rhine boatman.^[3]
• 1616 – A Bavarian mining law uses it of a salt shipper.^[3]
• 18th century – Fahrer means the driver of a vehicle.^[4]
• 1793 – Adelung records the word only in compounds.^[6]
• 1904 – Georg Heym uses it for the driver of a car.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who drives a motor vehicle; a driver: Der Fahrer bremste gerade noch rechtzeitig.^[1][8]
2. A person who drives a vehicle for a living, as a chauffeur or truck driver: Die Spedition stellt neue Fahrer ein.^[1][8]

Word family

• Fahrerin
• Beifahrer
• Autofahrer
• Radfahrer

Related words

• fahren
• Kraftfahrer
• Seefahrer
• Fahrt

References

1. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 272
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 9, 53
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. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1259
6. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
7. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
8. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org