Ich

Forms

Ich n (genitive Ichs, plural Ichs or Ich)^[1] Poets of the 17th and 18th centuries also used the noun as a masculine, and the accusative mich could be used as a noun in the same way, as in Fleming's den ganzen mich.^[2] Goethe usually inflects the genitive, des Ichs.^[3]

Etymology

It is the pronoun ich “I”, used as a neuter noun.^[4][1][5] The pronoun is inherited from Middle High German ich, inherited from Old High German ih, inherited from Proto-Germanic *ek, the same word as Gothic 𐌹𐌺 (ik), Old Norse ek and Old English ic, and it continues Proto-Indo-European *eǵ beside Proto-Indo-European *eǵom, which also gave Ancient Greek ἐγώ (egṓ) and Latin ego.^[6][5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul notes that the noun occurs here and there in Middle High German in the sense “one's own person, self”.^[8] Lexer quotes mîn ander ich “my second self” and Ulrich von Liechtenstein's daʒ wir beide sîn ein ich “that we both are one self”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century poets used the noun for a beloved friend or one's own soul, as in Logau's mein andrer ich on the death of a friend.^[2] Goethe often wrote of the inner person or one's own self, mein eigentliches Ich (1823).^[3] The derivative Ichheit is recorded as early as the 14th century, and Ichsucht (18th century), which Paul attributes to Jean Paul, was formed to replace Egoismus.^[5][8]

In philosophy the word became central with Fichte, who opposed the Ich to the Nicht-Ich.^[8] Sigmund Freud's Das Ich und das Es (1923), which distinguishes the Ich from the Über-Ich (conscience) and the Es (drives), had a lasting effect on psychology and psychoanalysis.^[8] English borrowed the German noun in this sense, and Modern Hebrew uses Nikht-Ikh for Fichte's term.^[1][10]

Timeline

• Middle High German – Isolated use of ich as a noun “self”.^[8]
• 14th century – Ichheit appears.^[5]
• 18th century – Ichsucht is formed as a replacement for Egoismus.^[5]
• 1823 – Goethe writes of mein eigentliches Ich.^[3]
• 1923 – Freud publishes Das Ich und das Es.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The self of which one is conscious and by which one distinguishes oneself from the world around: sein besseres Ich, one's better self.^[11][5][1]
2. (psychology) The ego, the agency that mediates between the Es and the Über-Ich.^[11][1][4]

Word family

• Ichheit
• Ichsucht
• ichsüchtig
• Über-Ich
• Nicht-Ich

Related words

• ich
• Egoismus
• Latin ego

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 2017
3. ^ a b c Goethe-Wörterbuch (1978–), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen and Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer
4. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 399
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 435
7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
8. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1411
10. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag