Etymologically
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Freude

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfʁɔɪ̯də/[1]

Forms

Freude f (genitive Freude, plural Freuden)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vröude, inherited from Old High German frewida, inherited from Proto-Germanic *frawiþō (“joy”).[1][2] Kluge takes it as a pre-German abstract noun to the adjective froh “glad”, Old High German frō, with the suffix -ida seen also in Gemeinde and Zierde; freuen belongs to the same group.[2][3][4] Old High German also had the form frouwida.[3]

It is mainly a High German word, foreign to Gothic, Old English and Old Norse; the Grimms' dictionary thinks Middle Dutch vroude, Dutch vreugde and Swedish fröjd were borrowed from German, while Duden counts the Scandinavian words as related by ablaut, with their meaning influenced by German.[5][4] The adjective goes back to Proto-Germanic *frawaz, which in Old Norse frár means “swift”, perhaps the original sense.[6] Pfeifer connects it with the root Proto-Indo-European *prew- (“to jump”), and Kluge with *pro (“forward”).[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German frewida is recorded from the 8th or 9th century, and frouwida from the 9th, in Isidor, Otfrid, Notker, Williram and the Würzburg confession, meaning joy and delight, also gloating.[3][7][8] Otfrid (863–871) calls it ther frewida ist alles guates, the joy of all good.[9]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German often used the word in the plural, which survives in mit Freuden and vor Freuden.[4][10] Adelung records an obsolete sense “courage”, still seen in mit Freuden in den Tod gehen and in the adjective freudig (16th century).[11][3] Schiller's ode An die Freude begins Freude, schöner Götterfunken.[10]

Freudenmädchen “prostitute” is an 18th-century loan translation of French fille de joie, and it gave Freudenhaus the sense “brothel”; in the 16th and 17th centuries, and already in Middle High German vröudenhūs, it had been simply a house full of joy.[3][4] The ironic phrase Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen, for a harmony that hides problems, is recorded since 1959.[1]

Timeline

  • 8th–9th century – Old High German frewida is first recorded.[3][2]
  • 863–871 – Otfrid uses frewida.[9]
  • Before 1022 – Notker writes in sánge ist fróuueda, “in song is joy”.[9]
  • 15th century – Early New High German has freudenweib “prostitute”.[3]
  • 16th century – First record of freudig.[3]
  • 18th century – Freudenmädchen is formed after French fille de joie.[3][4]
  • 1959 – First record of Friede, Freude, Eierkuchen.[1]

Meanings

Noun

  1. joy, delight, gladness: a happy state of mind: Die Kinder hüpften vor Freude.[12][1]
  2. (elevated, plural) Things that give pleasure: die kleinen Freuden des Alltags.[12]

Word family

  • freudig
  • Schadenfreude
  • Vorfreude
  • Lebensfreude
  • Freudenfeuer
  • Freudenhaus
  • Freudenmädchen

Usage notes

Jemandem eine Freude machen is to please someone, and ironically du machst mir Freude! means “you disappoint me”.[12] Aus Spaß an der Freud is a jocular way of saying “just for the fun of it”.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 317
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 287
  5. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 4, 142
  6. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 320
  7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 113
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ 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, 1002
  10. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  12. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag