Herr

Forms

Herr m (genitive Herrn or (archaic) Herren, plural Herren or (archaic) Herrn, diminutive Herrchen n or Herrlein n or Herrl n, feminine Herrin)^[1] The older full form Herre lives on in poetry and dialect.^[2][3] Since Gottsched the singular cases have been Herrn and the plural Herren.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German hērre, inherited from Old High German hērro, shortened from hēriro, the comparative of hēr (“old, venerable”), the modern hehr: properly “the older, the more venerable one”.^[4][5][2] The comparative has been used as a noun since the 8th century after the model of Latin senior (“older; lord”), itself a comparative used as a title, so the German word is probably a semantic loan.^[4][5][6][7] Pfeifer places the model in Frankish of the 7th and 8th centuries, under the influence of Romance terms such as Old French seignor and sire, and notes that the new word gradually displaced the older words for the lord of a retinue, Old High German frō and truhtīn.^[5]

The same word is Old Saxon hērro, Old Frisian hēra and Dutch heer.^[4][5] Old English hearra and Old Norse herra were borrowed, from German according to Kluge, from Old Saxon according to Pfeifer.^[4][5]

The adjective continues Proto-Germanic *hairaz (“grey”), “grey-haired”, which developed to “venerable” in West Germanic and further to “noble” in German, while hárr and hār still mean “grey” (English hoar).^[8][5] Pfeifer traces it to the root Proto-Indo-European *ḱei-, found mainly in words for dark or grey colours, and compares Old Irish cīar (“dark”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German hēriro and its shortened forms are recorded from the 8th century, in glosses (765) and in texts such as the Hildebrandslied, the Isidor and the Benedictine Rule, meaning “lord, ruler” but also “elder, superior, prior” and “senator”.^[9][10] Otfrid still uses the full comparative hērero for “lord”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German hērre was the master of any dependant, a patron saint, a cleric, a husband and a noble vassal; before names and titles it was shortened to hēr, as in her keiser and her Otte (Otto IV).^[5][11] It has been used of God since Middle High German, as in Luther's der HERR.^[2] As a term of address the word passed from the powerful to town councillors and mayors, and since the 18th century it has been the general polite word and form of address for any man.^[5]

Old phrases are über etwas Herr werden “to master something” (16th century) and sein eigener Herr sein.^[5][2] In student language alter Herr was a former member of a fraternity, and then, in the 19th century, “father”.^[5] The feminine Herrin dates from the 16th century, the adjective herrisch “domineering” from the 17th.^[5][6] Hegel opposed Herr and Knecht as the independent and the dependent consciousness (1807).^[2] The exclamation Herrgott! was borrowed into Czech as hergot.^[12]

Timeline

• 765 – Old High German hēriro appears in glosses.^[9]
• Early 15th century – Herrgott “Lord God” is recorded.^[5]
• 16th century – The feminine Herrin and the phrase über etwas Herr werden appear.^[5]
• 17th century – The adjective herrisch “domineering” is formed.^[5]
• 18th century – Herr becomes the general form of address for any man.^[5]
• 1807 – Hegel's Phänomenologie des Geistes contrasts master and servant.^[2]
• 19th century – alter Herr comes to mean “father” in colloquial use.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A man, used as the polite word in social life: ein älterer Herr mit Hut.^[7][1]
2. A gentleman, a cultivated man: den großen Herrn spielen “to play the fine gentleman”.^[7]
3. A title and form of address for a man, before the name or office: Herr Becker, Herr Direktor (mister, sir).^[7][1]
4. A master or lord, someone who has power over people or things: Herr über etwas sein, Herr der Lage sein.^[7][1][2]
5. (Christianity) God, the Lord.^[7][1]
6. (sports) In the plural, the men's team or competition: bei den Herren.^[7]
7. (historical) The lowest title of the German nobility.^[1]

Word family

• Herrin
• herrisch
• Herrgott
• Herrchen
• Hausherr
• Herrenhaus
• Herrenmensch
• Herrenmoral

Related words

• hehr
• herrschen
• herrlich
• Herrschaft
• Senior
• English hoar

Usage notes

Herr is a weak noun: genitive, dative and accusative singular Herrn.^[2][3] Colloquially Alter Herr is a humorous word for one's father, and aus aller Herren Länder means “from all over the world”.^[7][1] The diminutive Herrchen is the owner of a dog.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 1124
4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 412
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 368
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 403
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 149
11. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1259
12. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de