Interview

Forms

Interview n (genitive Interviews, plural Interviews)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English interview, adopted about 1870 from the language of American journalists.^[2][3][4] The English noun is an anglicised form of French entrevue (“meeting”), a noun derived from entrevoir (“to see each other briefly, meet”), from voir (“to see”), ultimately Latin videō (“to see”) with inter (“between”).^[4][2][5] The sense “questioning by a reporter” developed in American English with the methods of journalism;^[2][6] Paul dates it there to 1869.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The German Fremdwörterbuch calls it a young, properly American journalists' word that was naturalised about 1870.^[3] In 1875 Gutzkow wrote that he had not travelled as an Interviewer like a pushy correspondent of the New York Herald.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

The meaning remained the journalistic conversation, usually with a well-known person and meant for publication; it was later extended to the social sciences, as a means of gathering data, and to medicine and psychology.^[6][7][8] The verb interviewen is dated by Paul to 1865, while the German Fremdwörterbuch quotes it from 1886.^[6][3] Hungarian borrowed the word as interjú in 1880.^[9]

Timeline

• 1869 – The journalistic sense is recorded in English.^[6]
• c. 1870 – The word is adopted into German.^[2][3]
• 1875 – Gutzkow uses Interviewer.^[3]
• 1880 – Hungarian interjú.^[9]
• 1886 – interviewt in Katscher and Stinde.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An interview by a reporter of the press, radio or television, usually with a well-known person: Der Trainer gab nach dem Spiel ein kurzes Interview.^[8][1]
2. (sociology) Systematic questioning of selected people for statistical purposes.^[8][7]
3. (psychology, medicine) Methodical questioning of a patient for diagnosis.^[8]

Word family

• interviewen
• Interviewer

Related words

• English interview

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 449
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 397
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de