Fahrzeug

Forms

Fahrzeug n (genitive Fahrzeuges or Fahrzeugs, plural Fahrzeuge)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from German fahren (“to travel”) + Zeug (“gear, equipment”).^[2][1] Kluge holds that it was taken over at the end of the 17th century from the Low German word fārtüg (compare Dutch vaartuig (“vessel”)), and that it first meant “ship”, as the Dutch word still does.^[2][1][3] Another account traces it to Middle Low German vārtǖch, brought into High German by travel accounts of the 17th century.^[4] The revised Grimm dictionary, however, treats it as a derivative of fahren and calls the connection with the Low German and Dutch words unclear; in recent use it is also a shortening of Kraftfahrzeug.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The revised Grimm dictionary quotes farzeuͤg for a wagon with its wheels already in 1502, in a translation of the revelations of Saint Birgitta.^[5] Kluge dates the word to the 17th century, with the sense “ship”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century Adelung defined Fahrzeug as any ship or vessel used for travelling on water, and especially the smaller kinds, not warships.^[6] Wieland and Schiller use it of boats and ships at sea.^[7] Kluge dates the land sense, a cart or wagon and then any means of transport on land, to the 19th century,^[2] though the revised Grimm dictionary has wagons from 1502 and 1749.^[5] From the 20th century it is used above all of motor vehicles, as in a 1928 description of the car as the comfortable vehicle of the day.^[5][1] Today it covers any device on wheels, runners or wings that carries people or loads.^[3]

Timeline

• 1502 – farzeuͤg is used of a wagon.^[5]
• End of the 17th century – Kluge dates the adoption of the word for “ship”.^[2]
• 1749 – ihr rollend fahrzeug, of a carriage, in a poem by Lange.^[5]
• 19th century – Kluge dates the general sense “vehicle on land”.^[2]
• 1928 – The car is called “the comfortable vehicle of today”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vehicle: a construction with wheels, runners or wings, with its own or an outside drive, for carrying people or loads; also a ship or boat: Auf der Brücke standen Fahrzeuge aller Art im Stau.^[3][1]
2. (narrower) A motor vehicle, a car.^[1][5]

Word family

• Kraftfahrzeug
• Wasserfahrzeug
• Einsatzfahrzeug

Related words

• Flugzeug
• fahren
• Zeug

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 273
3. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
5. ^ 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, 64
6. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1267