Etymologically
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Kontrolle

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Pronunciation

  • /kɔnˈtʁɔlə/[1]

Forms

Kontrolle f (genitive Kontrolle, plural Kontrollen)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French contrôle, borrowed in the 18th century, contracted from older contre-rôle (“counter-roll, duplicate register”), from contre (“against”) and rôle (“roll, list”).[2][3][4] These continue Latin contrā (“against”) and Medieval Latin rotulus (“roll”), a diminutive of Latin rota (“wheel”).[2][3] The word properly meant a second register kept to check the entries of the original.[3][4] Pfeifer also cites Middle French contrerolle.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The German Fremdwörterbuch quotes Lessing's Hamburgische Dramaturgie (1767): Voltaire ist mit seiner historischen Controlle ganz unleidlich (“Voltaire is quite unbearable with his historical checking”).[5] The title Contrerrolleur appears as early as 1588, and the verb controliren in 1598.[5]

Semantic evolution

The word meant supervision and checking until the 20th century, when it also took the sense “power, command over something”, under the influence of English control, itself from French.[3][2] The German Democratic Republic had Kontrolle durch die Mark, a translation of a Russian phrase for checking plan fulfilment by its financial result.[6] German passed the word on: Hungarian kontroll is recorded from 1794, and Slovene has kontrola.[7]

Timeline

  • 1588 – Contrerrolleur as an official's title.[5]
  • 1598 – The verb controliren in Albertinus.[5]
  • 1767 – Controlle in Lessing.[5]
  • 1794 – Hungarian kontroll.[7]
  • 20th century – Sense “command, power”, after English.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Constant supervision of someone or something: Die Firma steht unter der Kontrolle der Aufsichtsbehörde.[6][1]
  2. A check, inspection: Auf der Autobahn gab es eine Kontrolle.[6][1]
  3. Control, power over someone, oneself or something: die Kontrolle verlieren;[6][8] etwas unter Kontrolle bringen.[6][8]
  4. (motor sport) A checkpoint.[6]

Word family

  • kontrollieren
  • Kontrolleur
  • Kontrollraum
  • Kontrollverlust

Usage notes

Vertrauen ist gut, Kontrolle ist besser (“trust is good, control is better”) is a common saying.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 528
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 477
  5. ^ a b c d e 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
  6. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  8. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org