Etymologically
Log in

Hinweis

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 18:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈhɪnvaɪ̯s/[1]

Forms

Hinweis m (genitive Hinweises, plural Hinweise)[1]

Etymology

It is from German hinweisen (“to point to, draw attention to”), a noun formed from the stem of the verb without a suffix.[1][2] The verb is made of hin “there, towards” and weisen “to show, point”.[3][1]

That verb is Middle High German wīsen, Old High German wīsen, from Proto-Germanic *wīsijaną, which also gave Old Saxon wīsian, Old English wīsian and Old Norse vísa.[4][5] Pfeifer, Paul and the Duden etymological dictionary derive it from the adjective weise “wise” and take it to mean properly “to make knowing”.[5][6][7] Kluge also connects it with the root of wissen “to know”, but finds the morphology unclear and thinks a derivation from the adjective unlikely.[4]

Semantic evolution

Adelung defines the verb hinweisen as pointing to a place away from the speaker, the opposite of herweisen.[3] Campe glosses it as “to point there” and records the grammatical term hinweisendes Fürwort for the demonstrative pronoun.[8] Goethe used it often in the sense of drawing someone's attention to something, which accounts for over half of his records.[9] The noun Hinweis has the senses of this use: a piece of advice or a remark that points someone towards something, and a sign that suggests something.[10][2]

Timeline

  • 1793 – Adelung records hinweisen “to direct to a distant place”.[3]
  • 1807 – Campe records hinweisendes Fürwort “demonstrative pronoun”.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A hint, tip or piece of advice; a remark or notice that draws attention to something or suggests a course of action: Danke für den Hinweis auf die neue Ausstellung![10][1]
  2. An indication or clue that points to something: Die Polizei bittet die Bevölkerung um Hinweise.[10][1]

Word family

  • Hinweisschild
  • Hinweisgeber

Usage notes

In official language unter Hinweis auf means “with reference to”, as when a request is refused with reference to the relevant regulations.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 2, 1202
  4. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 980
  5. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 926
  8. ^ a b Campe, Joachim Heinrich (1807–1811), Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache, 5 vols., Braunschweig: Schulbuchhandlung, p. 2, 735
  9. ^ Goethe-Wörterbuch (1978–), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen and Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, p. 4, 1271
  10. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag