Etymologically
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Kirche

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈkɪʁçə/, [ˈkʰɪʁçɘ], [ˈkʰɪɐ̯çɘ][1]

Forms

Kirche f (genitive Kirche, plural Kirchen, diminutive Kirchelchen n or Kirchlein n)[1] Alemannic has kilche (Swiss Chilche), with /r/ changed to /l/, already in Old High German kilihha.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kirche, inherited from Old High German kirihha, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kirikā, borrowed from Ancient Greek κυρικόν (kūrikón, “house of God”), a late (4th-century) popular form of κυριακόν (kūriakón), the neuter of κυριακός (kūriakós, “belonging to the Lord”), from κύριος (kúrios, “lord”).[4][2][5] Kluge starts instead from a popular feminine form, known only in the New Testament word κυριακή (kūriakḗ, “Sunday”).[6] The same loanword is Old Saxon kirika, Old Frisian kerke and Old English cirice, and today Dutch kerk, English church and Swedish kyrka.[6][4][7]

The feminine gender is probably due to Latin basilica, which it explained or replaced.[6][4] Kluge thinks the word came first into Frankish and spread with the Frankish church language.[6][8] Pfeifer and Wiktionary doubt that the Goths passed it on (their word was Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌺𐌺𐌻𐌴𐍃𐌾𐍉 (aikklēsjō)) and think of the Roman towns on the Rhine and Moselle, such as Trier, Metz and Cologne, where churches were built in the age of Constantine.[4][1] Jacob Grimm had proposed Latin circus, an explanation the Grimms' dictionary later gave up.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German kirihha is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses (765), then in the Isidor, the Tatian, the Frankish baptismal vow, the Benedictine Rule and several confessions.[9][2][10] It meant the church building, a temple or oratory, and also the congregation and the Church as a community, like Latin ecclesia.[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Paul notes that the word first named the building and was early transferred to the community, which in Greek and Latin was ecclesia; in the Romance languages the transfer went the other way, and ecclesia also came to mean the building (French église).[11] Early New High German used it also for the sanctuaries of other religions, a temple or a synagogue, a use Adelung, around 1800, found unusual and not to be imitated.[12][13]

Compounds tell their own history: Kirchenlied is recorded in Herder in 1767, and Kirchturmpolitik “parish-pump politics” was a catchword of Bismarck's in 1889.[11] Kirchweih, first the consecration of a church, came to mean its anniversary feast and the fair that went with it, in dialect Kirbe and Swiss Kilbi.[11][8] The word was borrowed into Russian as кирха (kirxa).[1]

Timeline

  • 765 – Old High German kirihha appears in glosses.[9]
  • 1172–1190 – Middle High German kirche is recorded in Köbler's earliest dated source.[14]
  • 1767 – Herder uses Kirchenlied.[11]
  • 1889 – Bismarck uses Kirchturmpolitik.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A church, a consecrated building, usually with a tower, for Christian worship.[5][1]
  2. (without plural) A church service: nach der Kirche gehen wir essen.[5][15]
  3. A Christian denomination, an organised community of one confession: die evangelische Kirche.[5][1]
  4. The Church as an institution, represented by its clergy: Kirche und Staat.[5]

Word family

  • kirchlich
  • Kirmes
  • Kirchweih
  • Kirchspiel
  • Kirchhof
  • Kirchturmpolitik

Usage notes

Die Kirche im Dorf lassen “to leave the church in the village” is to keep things in proportion, and die Kirche ums Dorf tragen is to go about something in a needlessly complicated way.[5][16] In these phrases Kirche stands for the parish, and the image is the longer route that country processions took around the village.[5] Kinder, Küche, Kirche “children, kitchen, church” sums up the traditional sphere of women.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 534
  3. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 790
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 492
  7. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 195
  8. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 176
  11. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  12. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  13. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  15. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  16. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag