Grad

Forms

Grad m (genitive Grades or Grads, plural Grade or Grad)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German grāt, inherited from Old High German grād (“step, rank”), borrowed from Latin gradus (“step, stage, degree, rank”), borrowed about 1000, a noun of gradior (“to step, walk”).^[2][3][4] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʰredʰ- (“to step”).^[5] Until the 18th century the word was sometimes used with Latin endings, especially in technical language.^[4] Kluge names the academic degree as the first sense taken over, but Pfeifer, Paul and the DFWB show “step, stair” and “rank” first, the academic sense only from the 15th or 17th century.^[2][3][6][4] The same word is Dutch graad, English grade, French grade and Swedish grad.^[2]

Besides the usual plural, Middle High German also had umlauted plurals such as græte, which are often hard to tell from those of grēde (“stairs”).^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Notker (about 1000) uses grād in the sense “rank”.^[9][5] A text of 1022 renders the fifteen steps up to the Temple, Latin quindecim gradibus, as fivnfzehen graten.^[4] Köbler gives the Old High German senses as “degree, step, rank, stair”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense “step, stair” lasted until the early 17th century, now and then into the 18th, in phrases such as the lowest step of the altar.^[4][6] As a measure and a rank of things the word is found from Middle High German on.^[3] It came to mean the 360th part of a circle in the 14th century according to Paul, the 16th according to Pfeifer, and was applied to the earth's circles of latitude and longitude by 1567.^[6][3] Paul dates the degree of kinship to 1410 and the academic degree to 1416, while Pfeifer puts the latter in the 17th century;^[6][3] Goethe's Faust speaks of ein Mann von vielen Graden.^[6][3]

From the 16th century it was used as a quantity of abstract things, as in Grad der Wahrscheinlichkeit, and since the 18th century in the phrase in hohem Grade “to a high degree”.^[6] In mathematics it meant the power of an equation from 1694, in physics a degree of temperature from the early 19th century, and in printing the size of type from 1884.^[6] The Latin phrase Gradus ad Parnassum, after the title of Paul Aler's book of 1683, has been used since the mid-18th century.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Notker uses Old High German grād “rank”.^[9]
• 14th century – First record of the sense “360th part of a circle”.^[6]
• 1410 – Grad is used for the degree of kinship.^[6]
• 1416 – First record of the academic degree.^[6]
• 1567 – Grad is applied to latitude and longitude.^[6]
• 1694 – Grad means the power of an equation.^[6]
• Early 19th century – First record as a unit of temperature.^[6]
• 1884 – Printers use Grad for Schriftgrad.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A degree or measure of how strongly a quality or state is present; extent: ein hoher Grad an Genauigkeit;^[10][1] Verwandte zweiten Grades;^[10][1] in hohem Grade, extremely.^[10][1]
2. A rank: den akademischen Grad eines Magisters erwerben.^[10][11]
3. (mathematics) The highest power of the unknown in an equation: eine Gleichung dritten Grades.^[10][11]
4. A unit on an evenly divided scale, especially of temperature: Das Wasser im See hat nur 18 Grad.^[10][1]
5. A unit of plane angle, the 90th part of a right angle: ein Winkel von 45 Grad.^[10][11]
6. (geography, astronomy) A degree of latitude or longitude: Die Stadt liegt auf dem achtundvierzigsten Grad nördlicher Breite.^[10][11]

Word family

• graduell
• gradieren
• graduieren
• Gradmesser
• hochgradig

Related words

• degradieren
• Aggression
• Kongress
• progressiv
• Latin gradus

Usage notes

After a number the plural is usually uninflected (30 Grad), as with other units of measure.^[10][7] Sich um hundertachtzig Grad drehen is to change to the opposite point of view.^[10]

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. 369
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 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
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 8, 1660
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 Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 131
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org