Etymologically
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Gewalt

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Pronunciation

  • /ɡəˈvalt/, [ɡəˈvalt], [-ˈʋalt][1]
  • Southern, also: [ɡ̊e-][1]

Forms

Gewalt f (genitive Gewalt, plural Gewalten)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German gewalt, inherited from Old High German giwalt, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *gawald, inherited from Proto-Germanic *gawaldą.[1][2][3] Like Old Frisian wald, it is an abstract noun formed to the verb walten “to rule, have power over”, and in the oldest period it meant above all “power, rule, authority”.[2][3] The same word is Old Saxon giwald, Middle Low German gewelde, Dutch geweld and Old English geweald, while Old Norse vald and Swedish våld have no prefix; in Old Norse and Old English it is a neuter.[2][3][4]

The verb goes back to Proto-Germanic *waldaną (“to rule”), also in Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌳𐌰𐌽 (waldan), Old Norse valda and Old English wealdan, the source of English wield.[5][6] Kluge takes it as a present with a dental suffix from a root meaning “to be strong, rule”, also found without the suffix in Latin valeō (“to be strong”) and Tocharian B walo (“king”);[5] Kroonen sets up Proto-Indo-European *h₂welh₁- and compares Old Irish flaith (“sovereignty, ruler”) and Lithuanian valdýti (“to rule”), noting that the Baltic and Slavic verbs may also be loans from Germanic.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German giwalt is first recorded in glosses of the last quarter of the 8th century, and then in Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid, Notker, the Ludwigslied and the Petruslied.[7][8] Its senses were “power over”, “rule, dominion”, “the authority of the state”, “a realm” and “freedom to act”;[8][7] ze gewalte lāzen meant “to hand over”.[8][7]

Semantic evolution

The ZDL word history stresses how stable the core senses “rule, power, authority, strength, force” have been; older senses such as “standing, prestige” and “full powers” have faded.[9] In early times the word was mostly positive, while today the negative sense of brutal force prevails, as compounds such as Gewalttat and Gewaltverbrechen show; the legitimate power of the state survives in Staatsgewalt and Gewaltenteilung “separation of powers”.[9] Adelung (1793) already gives both: superior power in general, and in a figurative sense the unlawful use of it, violence.[10]

Derivatives followed the noun: gewaltig “mighty” (Old High German giwaltīg, about 800), bewältigen (14th century, at first “to bring into one's power”), gewaltsam (15th century), Gewalthaber (15th century) and gewalttätig (17th century).[3][4] The word was borrowed into Polish as gwałt (1392, “force, strength”), and Polish passed it on to the East Slavic languages;[11][1] Yiddish gevald became a cry of “help!”, which Hebrew took over.[11][1]

Timeline

  • last quarter of the 8th century – Old High German giwalt appears in glosses.[7]
  • about 800 – The adjective giwaltīg “mighty” is recorded.[3]
  • 1392 – Polish gwałt “force, strength”, borrowed from German, is first recorded.[11]
  • 14th century – bewältigen “to get into one's power” appears.[3]
  • 15th century – gewaltsam and Gewalthaber are formed.[4]
  • 1509 – The earliest quotation of the ZDL word history, from the prose novel Fortunatus.[9]
  • 17th century – gewalttätig is formed from Gewalttat.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. power, authority: the right and the means to decide about or rule over someone or something, as in die elterliche Gewalt “parental authority” and the Gewaltenteilung of the state;[12][1] sich in der Gewalt haben is to keep control of oneself.[12][1]
  2. Unlawful coercion: action by which someone is forced to do something;[12][1] mit aller Gewalt means “at all costs”.[12][1]
  3. Physical force, violence, used ruthlessly against people or things: Die Demonstranten wurden mit Gewalt vom Platz gedrängt.[12][1][13]
  4. (elevated) Elemental force with an overwhelming effect: die Gewalt der Lawine;[12][13] höhere Gewalt is force majeure.[12][13]

Word family

  • gewaltig
  • gewaltsam
  • gewalttätig
  • Gewalttat
  • Gewalthaber
  • Gewaltherrschaft
  • Gewaltherrscher
  • Gewaltakt
  • Gewaltenteilung
  • Gewaltmonopol
  • Gewaltverbrechen
  • Staatsgewalt
  • bewältigen
  • überwältigen
  • vergewaltigen
  • walten
  • verwalten
  • Anwalt
  • English wield

Usage notes

In Old and Middle High German the word was masculine or feminine; the standard language now has only the feminine, but Paul still quotes a masculine from Pestalozzi.[14][15] The plural Gewalten is used of powers, as in Goethe's “Mächten und Gewalten”.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. 356
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 323
  5. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 970
  6. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b c Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 369
  9. ^ a b c Wortgeschichte digital (2020–), Zentrum für digitale Lexikographie der deutschen Sprache (ZDL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, zdl.org/wb/wortgeschichten
  10. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 2, 651
  11. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  13. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  14. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  15. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 6, 4910