Gut

Forms

Gut n (genitive Gutes or Guts, plural Güter)^[1] As the name of the school grade the plural is Guts.^[1] The plural was the same as the singular until late Middle High German, when forms in -e and -er appear.^[2] The plural in -er was usual by the 15th century.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German guot, inherited from Old High German guot (“good; goodness; property”), the adjective gut used as a neuter noun.^[3][4][5] The same use of the adjective is found in Old Saxon gōd, Old English gōd and Old Norse gott.^[3][6] The adjective itself, from Proto-Germanic *gōdaz (“good”), is common Germanic: Gothic 𐌲𐍉𐌸𐍃 (gōþs), góðr, and in the modern languages Dutch goed and English good.^[4][7]

Kluge finds the closest match in sense in Ancient Greek ἀγαθός (agathós, “good, brave”), although the Greek form expected beside the Germanic one would begin with /k/ and is found only in a gloss; he also allows a link with Gatte, which would give an original sense “fitting”.^[4] Pfeifer, Duden and Kroonen take that link as the explanation: the adjective has the o-grade of Proto-Indo-European *gʰedʰ- (“to join, fit together”), and Kroonen derives it from a lost strong verb Proto-Germanic *gadaną (“to fit”).^[3][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German guot as a noun is found in glosses from about 765 and in Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “the good, what is best; welfare, health, salvation; grace, kindness; property, possessions”.^[8][9] Tatian asks fon Nazareth mag sih waz guotes wesan?, “can anything good come out of Nazareth?”^[2]

Semantic evolution

The general sense “the good” was gradually replaced in New High German by the inflected das Gute, and survives only in set phrases whose noun is no longer felt, such as zugute kommen “to benefit” and jemandem etwas zugute halten “to make allowances for something”.^[2][10] The sense “possession” is Middle High German, with the pairs Hab und Gut, Geld und Gut and Gut und Blut;^[10] das höchste Gut translates Latin summum bonum.^[10] In Middle High German guot also meant a landed estate, as in Rittergut and Gutsherr.^[3][5][10]

Since Middle High German the word has also named goods loaded for transport, hence Frachtgut and Güterzug, and in technical use a processed material, as in Steingut.^[10][3] As the second element of compounds such as Saatgut and Diebesgut it has faded into a semi-suffix.^[4] Sailors call the ropes of a ship's rigging stehendes or laufendes Gut.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German guot appears as a noun in glosses.^[8]
• 9th century – Tatian uses guotes “anything good”.^[2]
• Middle High German – guot also means “landed estate”.^[3][5]
• 15th century – The plural Güter is the usual form.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A possession of material or spiritual value; property: sein ganzes Hab und Gut;^[11][10] irdische Güter.^[11][10]
2. A landed estate with its buildings: ein Gut in Mecklenburg erben.^[11]
3. Goods for transport, freight: Güter mit der Bahn befördern.^[11]
4. (dated) Material to be processed.^[11]
5. (nautical) The ropes of a ship's rigging: stehendes Gut, laufendes Gut.^[11]
6. (education) The school grade “good”, second best on the usual German scale.^[1]

Word family

• Landgut
• Rittergut
• Gutshof
• Gutsherr
• Güterzug
• Saatgut
• Steingut
• begütert

Related words

• gut
• Güte
• Gatte
• English good

Usage notes

A proverb says unrecht Gut gedeihet nicht, “ill-gotten goods never prosper”.^[11] Early New High German also had a noun gut “drop; stroke, epilepsy”, from Latin gutta (“drop”), which the Grimms list under gutt.^[12][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 9, 1353
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 Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 381
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 498
7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
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. 135
10. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
13. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 9, 1369