Jahrhundert

Forms

Jahrhundert n (genitive Jahrhunderts, plural Jahrhunderte)^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from German Jahr (“year”) + hundert (“hundred”), formed in the 17th century as a loan translation from Latin saeculum (“age, century”).^[2][3][4] Before it, Rompler had tried a native coinage of his own; the Tatian and the Annolied rendered the Latin word with Old High German weralt (“world, age”).^[4][5] The same compound is Dutch jaarhonderd.^[1]

Adelung thought the unusual type of compound came from the old habit of naming years by their hundreds alone, leaving out the thousand (“in the year five hundred and ten” for 1510).^[5] Jahr is jār, from Proto-Germanic *jērą (“year”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Grimms' dictionary finds it first in Schottel's grammar, recorded as a word of Birken's, and fully established by the end of the 17th century, in the senses “a hundred years” and, more freely, “an age, an era, a generation”.^[4] Stieler's dictionary explains it with Latin seculum and Menschenalter “a lifetime”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The new word was not accepted at once: as late as 1755 it was criticised as “un-German”, unintelligible and unusable in the plural.^[2] In the 18th century it was the model for Jahrzehnt and Jahrtausend.^[2] Adelung lists the plural Jahrhunderte and calls the years 1700 to 1800 das gegenwärtige Jahrhundert.^[5]

Writers of the 18th century also used it for “the age, the spirit of the time”: Lessing speaks of der feinere Geschmack des Jahrhunderts, and Goethe of the individual who should know sich und sein Jahrhundert.^[4] Today des Jahrhunderts after a noun marks something unmatched in a hundred years.^[7]

Timeline

• 17th century – Formed to render Latin saeculum; first recorded in Schottel.^[2][4]
• End of the 17th century – Fully established.^[4]
• 18th century – Jahrzehnt and Jahrtausend are formed on its model.^[2]
• 1755 – Still criticised as un-German and unusable in the plural.^[2]
• 1793 – Adelung lists the plural Jahrhunderte.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A century, a period of a hundred years: im achtzehnten Jahrhundert; abbreviated Jh.^[7][1]
2. An age or era marked by something: das Jahrhundert der Eisenbahn.^[7][4]
3. After a noun, des Jahrhunderts: unique in a hundred years: das Spiel des Jahrhunderts.^[7]

Related words

• Jahr
• hundert
• Jahrzehnt
• Jahrtausend
• Säkulum

Usage notes

The Duden dictionary counts a century from the year 0 to the year 99 of a hundred, while the German Wiktionary counts from 01 to 00 (the 17th century as 1601–1700).^[7][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 2243
5. ^ a b c d Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 454
7. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org