Etymologically
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Interesse

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Pronunciation

  • /ˌɪn.təˈrɛsə/, /ɪnˈtrɛsə/, /ˌɪn.tɛɐ̯ˈrɛsə/[1]
  • Austria: [ˌɪn.tɐ̯-][1]

Forms

Interesse n (genitive Interesses, plural Interessen)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin interesse (“loss arising from a liability to compensate; interest”), a legal term of Medieval Latin, recorded from the 13th century.[2][3][4] It is the infinitive of Latin intersum (“to be between; to take part; to matter”) used as a noun; the verb is made of inter (“between”) and sum (“to be”).[2][3] In law the impersonal “quod interest” meant “what is at stake, what matters”, especially in claims for damages;[2] Kluge mentions the view that this use began as “quod in re est” “what lies in the matter”, and was only later attached to inter.[2]

The legal meaning lived on above all in French intérêt, from interest (“it is of importance”), and French usage shaped the senses of the word in neighbouring languages, German among them.[2][3][5] The same Latin word gave English interest and Swedish intresse.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Middle High German interesse meant the loss suffered through neglect or inability to work, which had to be made good.[6][7] A 15th-century glossary renders it as schaden “damage”, and a Nuremberg ordinance orders a man who has lamed another to pay half the costs and interesse.[8] The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch has its first example from 1520.[4]

Semantic evolution

From the legal sense came two opposite uses in the 16th century: “interest on a loan”, from the point of view of the debtor who pays, and “profit, advantage”, from that of the creditor.[3][9][10] The second was the usual sense in the 16th and 17th centuries, often with a selfish tinge, “regard for one's own advantage”; from it come phrases such as im eigenen Interesse and seine Interessen wahrnehmen.[4][3] Lessing still wrote of repaying money mit Interessen “with interest”.[10]

The sense “attention, concern, the wish to know about something” was taken from French intérêt in the 18th century, together with interessant (1767).[4][3][10] In the second half of the century it became a term of philosophy and aesthetics: Kant defined it in 1790 as the pleasure we connect with the idea of a thing's existence, and called the taste for the beautiful a pleasure free of any interest.[10] The verb interessieren is from the 17th century (Paul has it from 1590), the participle interessiert “intent on one's advantage” from the 16th, and Interessent from 1609.[3][10] Hungarian took the word as interes “interest on money” in 1569.[11]

Timeline

  • 13th century – Medieval Latin interesse is used as a legal term.[3][4]
  • 15th century – interesse appears in German legal texts.[3][8]
  • 1520 – First example in the Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch.[4]
  • 16th century – The senses “interest on money” and “advantage” develop.[3]
  • 1569 – Hungarian borrows the word as interes.[11]
  • 18th century – The sense “attention, concern” comes in from French.[4][3]
  • 1790 – Kant makes it a term of aesthetics in the Critique of Judgement.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Attention, interest, concern for something or someone: Sie verfolgte die Debatte mit großem Interesse.[5][1]
  2. (usually plural) An inclination, a liking, a pursuit one enjoys: Wir haben viele gemeinsame Interessen.[5][12]
  3. Wish to buy or obtain something: Haben Sie noch Interesse an dem Fahrrad?[5][13]
  4. What is of benefit to someone; advantage: im Interesse der Kinder handeln.[5][13]
  5. (usually plural) Aims, concerns, the matters someone cares about: die Interessen der Mieter vertreten.[5][13]
  6. (plural, obsolete) Interest on money.[5][13]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 448
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 e f g Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1445
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ 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, 2147
  9. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  13. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag