Grund

Forms

Grund m (genitive Grundes or Grunds, plural Gründe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German grunt, inherited from Old High German grunt, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *grundu, inherited from Proto-Germanic *grunduz (“ground, bottom”).^[2][1][3] The same word is Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍅𐌰𐌳𐌳𐌾𐌿𐍃 (grunduwaddjus, “foundation wall”) (only in this compound), Old Norse grunnr, Old English grund, Old Frisian grund and Old Saxon grund, and today Dutch grond, English ground and Swedish grund.^[2][4][3]

Its further origin is unclear.^[2][5] Kluge discusses Old Irish grindell (“bottom of a lake”) and Lithuanian pãgrindas (“foundation”), but finds both difficult in form, and the Lithuanian word belongs with words for “plank”, so it may have meant an artificial floor.^[2] Pfeifer and the Duden assume an original sense “coarse sand, sandy soil”, literally “something ground up”, and connect it with the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰren- (“to rub, grind”), which would make it related to Grind and to English grind.^[6][7] Wiktionary instead derives it from Proto-Indo-European *gʰr̥mtús, a derivative of a root meaning “floor”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German grunt is first recorded in glosses of about 765, and then in Notker, meaning “ground, bottom, depth”, also “foundation” and “root”; in the glosses it renders Latin fundus, profundum, alveus and praedium “estate”.^[8][3][9]

Semantic evolution

Paul takes the basic sense to be “the surface on which something rests”: the earth, then landed property, as in grunt und eigen in Old High German and Grund und Boden (1429).^[10] It also meant a hollow or valley, as in Luther's auf Bergen und in Gründen and in place names, and the bottom of water or of a vessel.^[10][11] Kluge sums up the later specialisations as landed property (Grundstück, 1571), foundation (Grundlage, Grundsatz) and cause (begründen, grundlos).^[2][10]

Middle High German already used grunt figuratively for the depths of the heart, ûʒ herzen grunde.^[12] From “basis” came the sense “reason, cause”, which Kluge treats as one of the main lines of development.^[2][6] The phrase zu Grunde gehen first meant “to sink to the bottom”, and it has meant “to be ruined” since the 18th century.^[10][13] im Grunde weakened to “basically”.^[10][13] Hungarian borrowed grund “basis” (1813).^[14]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German grunt appears in glosses.^[8]
• c. 1000 – grunten and irgrunten “to fathom” are recorded.^[6]
• 1429 – Grund und Boden “land, property” is recorded.^[10]
• 1571 – Grundstück is recorded.^[10]
• 17th century – Gründer “founder” appears.^[6][7]
• 18th century – zu Grunde gehen is used in the sense “to be ruined”.^[10]
• 1813 – Hungarian grund is recorded.^[14]
• 19th century – Gründerzeit names the boom years after 1871.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. ground, soil; the surface of the earth.^[11][1]
2. (chiefly Austria) Land owned, a plot of land: ein Haus auf eigenem Grund bauen.^[11][1]
3. (dated, literary) A small valley or hollow.^[11]
4. The bottom of a body of water or of a vessel: auf den Grund des Sees tauchen.^[11][1]
5. A uniform background: weiße Sterne auf blauem Grund.^[11]
6. A reason, cause or motive: aus diesem Grund.^[11][1]

Word family

• Abgrund
• begründen
• ergründen
• gründen
• Gründer
• Gründerzeit
• Gründung
• Grundlage
• gründlich
• grundlos
• Grundsatz
• Grundstück
• grundieren
• Grundel
• Hintergrund
• Untergrund
• Vordergrund
• Beweggrund

Related words

• Grind
• English ground

Usage notes

In Grund und Boden means “utterly” (sich in Grund und Boden schämen), von Grund auf “thoroughly”, and einer Sache auf den Grund gehen “to get to the bottom of something”.^[11][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 378
3. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 657
4. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
7. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 343
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 134
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1101
13. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
14. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de