Familie

Forms

Familie f (genitive Familie, plural Familien)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin familia (“the household servants; the whole household”), a collective noun formed to famulus (“servant”).^[2][3][4] Pfeifer dates the borrowing to the early 15th century; it spread slowly from the middle of the 16th century and became fully established only in the 17th and 18th centuries, under the influence of French famille.^[3][5][6] Paul names both the Latin and the French word as its source.^[7] Wahrig calls the further origin of the Latin noun uncertain.^[8] The same word is Dutch familie, English family and Swedish familj.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The revised Grimms' dictionary quotes it from a Rhineland record of 1441–1452 in the Latin sense “household”, the people living together in one house.^[6] The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch has its first record in 1523, and in chancery language the word at first meant the household including servants, or all the dependants of a lord.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The older native word was Old High German hīwiski, Middle High German hīwische “household, family, kin”, related to the first part of Heirat, which died out early.^[3][7][9] Luther did not use Familie and said Haus instead (ich und mein Haus wollen dem Herrn dienen), and the formula Weib und Kind was also used.^[3][4] The Grimms noted that the word only gradually reached townspeople and peasants.^[10]

Until the 18th century the word included the servants; from then on it referred mainly to relatives, first a whole lineage, especially of the nobility, then above all a married couple and their children.^[7][5] It gained social and political weight around 1800, when it was called the cornerstone of civil society (1794) and Hegel wrote of the spirit of the family (1822).^[7] In the second half of the 20th century many compounds were formed to name new ways of living together.^[11] In biology it names a rank between order and genus.^[12][1] Russian фамилия, Latvian famīlija and Danish familie were borrowed from German.^[1]

Timeline

• 1441–1452 – A Rhineland record uses the word for a household.^[6]
• Early 15th century – Pfeifer's date for the borrowing.^[3]
• 1523 – First record in the Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch.^[5]
• 1566 – The word appears in a Frankfurt formulary of chancery letters.^[11]
• 18th century – It becomes established under French influence and narrows to relatives.^[5][7]
• 1794 – The family is called the cornerstone of civil society.^[7]
• Second half of the 20th century – Many new compounds name forms of living together.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A family: parents or a single parent living with at least one child: eine Familie mit drei Kindern.^[13][1]
2. All the people related by blood or marriage, a clan or lineage: die Familie ihrer Mutter.^[13][12]
3. (biology) A taxonomic rank between order and genus.^[13][12][1]
4. A group of things with common features or origin, such as languages.^[14]

Word family

• familiär
• Familienname
• Familienvater
• familienfreundlich
• Großfamilie
• Kleinfamilie
• Kernfamilie

Related words

• Famulus
• English family

Usage notes

Die Heilige Familie is Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus.^[13] Das kommt in den besten Familien vor “that happens in the best families” excuses a mishap, and das bleibt in der Familie means “that stays between us”.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 275
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 255
5. ^ a b c d e 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
6. ^ a b c 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, 119
7. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 154
10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1305
11. ^ a b c Wortgeschichte digital (2020–), Zentrum für digitale Lexikographie der deutschen Sprache (ZDL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, zdl.org/wb/wortgeschichten
12. ^ a b c Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
14. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org