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Haushalt

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Etymology and origin of the German word Haushalt

Confidence
Established
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
15th century

Pronunciation

  • /ˈhaʊ̯shalt/[1]

Forms

Haushalt m (genitive Haushaltes or Haushalts, plural Haushalte)[1] Early New High German also used it as a neuter, das haushalt.[2][3]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from the verb haushalten, Middle High German hūshalten, itself formed from Haus in the sense “household” and halten.[4][1] Compare Middle Low German hūsholt, Dutch huishouden (earlier huishold) and English household.[1]

Pfeifer tentatively connects the first noun with Proto-Indo-European *(s)kews- (“to cover, wrap”), making a house “that which covers”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates the noun to the 15th century.[4] Early New High German haushalt meant the household as a community of people living and working together, and also the running of a household.[2] The Grimms quote M. Neander (1582), who advises how one should seine hauszhalt führen.[3]

Semantic evolution

From the running of a home the word was applied freely to larger units: the Grimms cite der Haushalt eines Staates, der Haushalt der Natur and Jacob Grimm's der Haushalt einer Stadt (1841), and Goethe and Immermann used it of the mind and the feelings.[3] In economics it now names the public budget of a state or town, and in biology the balance of a substance in the body.[6][1] It also came to mean the people who live in one household.[6]

Timeline

  • 15th century – First record of Haushalt.[4]
  • 1582 – M. Neander writes of running one's hauszhalt.[3]
  • 1679 – Löhneys's book on government speaks of a “heavy household” and its expenses.[3]
  • 1841 – Jacob Grimm writes of der Haushalt einer Stadt.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The running of a home, housekeeping: Sie führt ihrem Vater den Haushalt.[6][1]
  2. (figurative) A system in balance: der Wasserhaushalt des Körpers, der Haushalt der Natur.[6][1]
  3. A household, the people living together in one home: Fast jeder Haushalt besitzt einen Kühlschrank.[6][1]
  4. (economics) The budget of a state, town or public body: Der Stadtrat beschloss den Haushalt für das nächste Jahr.[6][1]

Word family

  • haushalten
  • Haushälter
  • haushälterisch
  • haushaltlich
  • Haushaltung
  • Haushaltsplan
  • Haushaltsjahr

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  3. ^ 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. 10, 670
  4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 400
  5. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
Cite this entry

“Haushalt.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/de/Haushalt. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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