Fraktion

Forms

Fraktion f (genitive Fraktion, plural Fraktionen)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French fraction (“fraction, part; grouping”), from Latin frāctiō (“breaking”), from frangō (“to break”), past participle frāctus.^[2][3][4] Kluge dates it to the 17th century; the DFWB finds it rarely from the end of the 17th century and frequently only from the early 19th, and allows that it may have come from Latin directly.^[2][3] Pfeifer derives it from Late Latin frāctiō “breaking”.^[5]

Duden thinks the political sense arose under the influence of the now obsolete Faktion “party”, from factiō;^[6][7] Paul says that the new word displaced it.^[6][7] The same word is English fraction, Dutch fractie, Danish fraktion and Swedish fraktion; Fragment and Fraktur belong to the same Latin verb.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest records are mathematical: in 1694 Brüche oder Fractionen “fractions”, and in Zedler's lexicon (1733) Fractio as a number that measures a part of a unit.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century the word meant “division, part”; the DWB revision's first record, from 1770, is unclear, and a 1809 text uses it for a share of a burden.^[5][7][8] In the 1830s it became political, at first for a group that separates from a party: Heyse (1835) defines it so, and an 1843 text ranks extremists, Fractionen, coteries and cliques.^[7][5] It then narrowed to the members of one party in a parliament.^[7] Fraktionszwang, the obligation to vote with one's group, dates from the early 20th century.^[5]

Chemistry uses it for a part separated from a mixture, as in distillation.^[9][4] In Austria it is an outlying part of a municipality; in Switzerland, South Tyrol and Liechtenstein the sense “hamlet” was adapted from Italian frazione.^[4][1]

Timeline

• 1694 – First record, in mathematics, “fraction of a number”.^[3]
• 1733 – Zedler's lexicon defines Fractio in arithmetic.^[3]
• 18th century – The sense “division, part”.^[5][7]
• 1830s – The political sense “a group within a party” appears.^[7][5]
• 1835 – Heyse defines it as a part separating from a political party.^[7]
• early 20th century – Fraktionszwang is formed.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A parliamentary group: all the members of a party, or of allied parties, in a parliament: Die Fraktion stimmte geschlossen gegen das Gesetz.^[4][1]
2. A faction within an organization.^[4][10]
3. (Austria) An outlying part of a municipality;^[4][1] (Switzerland, South Tyrol, Liechtenstein) a hamlet.^[4][1]
4. (chemistry) A fraction: a product obtained in separating or purifying a mixture, such as a distillate.^[4][1]

Word family

• Fraktionszwang
• fraktionslos
• Fraktionsvorsitzender

Related words

• Fragment
• Fraktur
• fragil
• English fraction

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 313
3. ^ a b c d e f 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 284
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ 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, 868
9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
10. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag