Gemeinde

Forms

Gemeinde f (genitive Gemeinde, plural Gemeinden)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German gemeinde, inherited from Old High German gimeinida (“community”), an abstract noun formed from the adjective Old High German gimeini (“common”), now gemein, in its old sense “general, common to all”.^[2][3][1] Kluge thinks that it was probably formed under the influence of Latin commūnio (“fellowship”).^[2] Related formations are Old Saxon gimēntha, Middle Dutch ghemeente, Dutch gemeente and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐌸𐍃 (gamainþs, “congregation”).^[3][1][4]

The adjective, Proto-Germanic *gamainiz, is also Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (gamains) and Old English gemǣne, whence English mean; like commūnis, it is a prefixed form built on a root meaning “to exchange”, Proto-Indo-European *mei-, which Pfeifer also finds in Meineid.^[3][5][6] Its first sense would thus have been “falling to several in turn”, then “belonging to several alike”.^[3][5]

A parallel noun without the suffix, Old High German gimeinī, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌹𐌽𐌴𐌹 (gamainei), survives as Gemeine, which was largely replaced by Gemeinde in the 19th century but lives on in Upper German.^[3][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German gimeinida is first recorded in the Weißenburg Catechism (about 790?), and then in Otfrid, the Sankt Gallen Paternoster and Credo and the glosses, meaning “community, fellowship”, also “participation”, “kind” and “church”.^[6][7] The Isidor translation has chimeinidh for Latin communio.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German gemeinde meant “share, community, common property, the people one lives with, an assembled crowd”.^[3] In Early New High German it was used for common land such as pastures and woods, for the inhabitants of a place as a legal community and for the place itself, for any crowd or company, especially the Christian congregation, and for an assembly.^[8] The masculine and neuter forms found in older Low German show how widely the word was used.^[4]

Adelung, around 1800, noted that the general sense “any society” was obsolete apart from the Bible, and that the word now meant the inhabitants of a place, especially of a village, under their local authority, and a church congregation.^[9] From these come the modern senses of the lowest unit of state and church administration, and, by extension, a group of followers or admirers.^[3][10] The word was borrowed into Polish as gmina (1570), which now names the Polish municipality, and into Slovene as gmajna “community, common pasture”.^[11][1]

Timeline

• c. 790 – Old High German gimeinida appears in the Weißenburg Catechism.^[6]
• 9th century – Otfrid uses gimeinida.^[7]
• 1570 – Polish gmina “association” is recorded.^[11]
• 1793 – Adelung records the senses “inhabitants of a place” and “church congregation”.^[9]
• 19th century – Gemeinde largely replaces Gemeine.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A municipality, the lowest unit of state administration.^[10][1]
2. A parish, the lowest unit of a religious community.^[10][1]
3. The inhabitants of a municipality, or the members of a parish: Die Gemeinde stimmt über den neuen Sportplatz ab.^[10]
4. The congregation assembled at a service.^[10][1]
5. A group of people with shared interests, a following: die Gemeinde eines Liedermachers.^[10][12]

Word family

• Gemeinderat
• Gemeindehaus
• Kirchengemeinde
• Marktgemeinde
• eingemeinden

Related words

• gemein
• Gemeine
• Gemeinschaft
• gemeinsam
• Allmende
• Meineid

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. 345
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 5, 3220
5. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 218
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
10. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org