Etymologically
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Künstler

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈkʏnstlɐ/[1]

Forms

Künstler m (genitive Künstlers, plural Künstler, feminine Künstlerin)[1]

Etymology

The word is formed from German Kunst (“art; originally knowledge, skill”) + -ler, and is first recorded in the 16th century.[2][3][1] The Grimms' dictionary finds it already so widespread then that it must be older, but for the 15th century can show only künstener, künstner and künster;[2] Pfeifer likewise gives Middle High German forms without /l/.[4] The forms with /n/ survive in Dutch kunstenaar, Danish kunstner and Swedish konstnär.[2]

The source of the /l/ is disputed.[3][2] Kluge treats the word simply as the agent noun of Kunst;[5] the Duden dictionaries derive it from the verb künsteln (formerly “to improve a work”), later attached to the noun;[3][6] the Grimms' dictionary thinks the verb had at most a share in replacing /n/ by /l/.[2]

That noun is Middle High German kunst, Old High German kunst (“knowledge, ability, skill”), an abstract noun with a transitional /s/ formed to können,[5][7] which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 16th century the word meant a scholar or expert, shading into an alchemist or magician, and also a craftsman or master builder.[10][4] Aventinus calls the father of the empress Eudoxia eines künstlers und philosophi von Athen (“an Athenian scholar and philosopher”).[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense “scholar” matches Kunst in its old meaning of learning; the 15th-century vocabularies gloss künster as Latin artista, the name of the members of the arts faculty.[2] Compounds of the 18th century such as Meßkünstler “mathematician” and Scheidekünstler “chemist” continue this use.[2] The sense “creator or performer of works of art” is from the 18th century,[4] when Kunst itself narrowed to artistic activity.[5] Adelung still defined a Künstler as anyone who practises an art, and in the narrower sense painters, architects or dancing masters, but not poets or orators.[11] The adjective künstlerisch is also from the 18th century.[4][3]

English borrowed Künstlerroman, a novel about the development of an artist, in 1941.[12]

Timeline

  • 15th century – künster, künstener, künstner in the vocabularies.[2]
  • 16th century – Künstler is first recorded, meaning “scholar, expert”.[2][4]
  • 18th century – Sense “creator of works of art”;[4] künstlerisch.[4]
  • 1793 – Adelung defines it as anyone who practises an art.[11]
  • 1941 – English borrows Künstlerroman.[12]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An artist: someone who creates works of art or interprets them in performance;[6][1] bildende Künstler are painters, graphic artists and sculptors.[6][1]
  2. Someone with exceptional skill in a particular field, a master: Er ist ein Künstler im Verhandeln.[6][13]

Word family

  • Künstlerin
  • künstlerisch
  • Tonkünstler
  • Tausendkünstler
  • Schwarzkünstler

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 2706
  3. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 549
  6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
  8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 524
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  11. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  12. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org