Etymologically
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Kopf

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Pronunciation

  • /kɔpf/, [kɔp͡f], [kɔp͡ɸ][1]

Forms

Kopf m (genitive Kopfes or Kopfs, plural Köpfe, diminutive Köpfchen n or Köpflein n or Kopferl n)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kopf (“drinking vessel, skull, head”), inherited from Old High German kopf (“cup, bowl”), which Kluge, Pfeifer and the Duden dictionary take as an early loan, borrowed from Late Latin cuppa (“cup”), a by-form of Latin cūpa (“tub, cask”).[2][3][4] The same borrowing is found in Old English cuppe (whence English cup), Old Norse koppr (“cup-shaped vessel, small boat”), Middle Low German kop and Dutch kop.[2][3] Paul explains the masculine gender by the Old High German word gebal (“head”).[5]

Kluge sees the change of meaning as an expressive image, to smash someone's “cup” being to smash their head, just as French tête (“head”) comes from testa (“earthenware vessel, shard”) and replaced caput.[2][6][4] Pfeifer, Paul and the Duden dictionary see the link in the sense “skull” of Middle High German hirnkopf (“skull”), the vessel of the brain.[3][5][4]

Wiktionary instead treats the word as native, Proto-West Germanic *kopp, Proto-Germanic *kuppaz (“round object, bowl, crown of the head”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve”), and gives the Latin source as an alternative that form and gender make less likely.[1] Orel likewise compares Latvian gubt (“to bend”) and Proto-Slavic *gъbnǫti (“to bend”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German kopf is recorded from the end of the 8th century in glosses, and in Notker, meaning “cup, goblet, bowl”.[8][9][10] The sense “back of the head” (Latin occiput) appears in glosses which the Grimms date to the 12th or even the 11th century, and Pfeifer to a manuscript of the 13th.[11][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German kopf meant a drinking vessel, the skull and the head, but the sense “head” was still rare, and Luther mostly writes Haupt.[5][12] From the 16th century Kopf pushed Haupt into elevated language.[3] The old sense “cup” remained in full use in the 16th century and lasted into the 17th, and it survives in Schröpfkopf “cupping glass” and Pfeifenkopf.[13][5] Early New High German also used the word as a measure of liquid or grain.[14]

Only Kopf, never Haupt, is used for the seat of thought, as in ein kluger Kopf and in er hat seinen Kopf für sich for the seat of the will.[5] It also names parts of things by shape or position, as in Nagelkopf, Brückenkopf and Kohlkopf.[5] Köpfchen “brains” and the boast Köpfchen, Köpfchen! date from the beginning of the 20th century.[5] Hebrew has borrowed Dummkopf.[15]

Timeline

  • End of the 8th century – Old High German kopf “cup” appears in glosses.[8][9]
  • 12th century – chopf glosses Latin occiput “back of the head”.[11]
  • 14th century – köpfen “to behead” is recorded.[3]
  • 16th century – Kopf replaces Haupt as the everyday word;[3] Kopfweh is recorded.[3]
  • 17th century – Kopfschmerz is recorded.[3]
  • Early 20th century – Köpfchen is used for “brains”.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The head of a person or animal: Mir tut der Kopf weh.[16][1]
  2. A person of particular (intellectual) abilities: Sie ist ein heller Kopf.[16][1]
  3. The leader or head of a group or organization: der Kopf der Bande.[16][17]
  4. The mind, thinking or will: Das will mir nicht aus dem Kopf.[16]
  5. An individual within a larger number of people, a head: zehn Euro pro Kopf.[16]
  6. The round upper part of something, as of a nail or a pin.[16][17]
  7. The edible round head of cabbage or lettuce: zwei Köpfe Salat.[16][17]
  8. The top or front part of something, such as the heading of a letter or the head of a train.[16][1]
  9. (numismatics) The heads side of a coin, in Kopf oder Zahl “heads or tails”.[16][1]
  10. (regional) A measure of capacity of varying size.[16]

Word family

  • köpfen
  • Köpfchen
  • Kopfschmerz
  • Kopfweh
  • Kopfhörer
  • Dummkopf
  • Dickkopf
  • Hitzkopf
  • Kehlkopf
  • Kohlkopf
  • Kübel
  • Kuppe
  • English cup

Usage notes

Wie vor den Kopf geschlagen “thunderstruck” is recorded from Lessing, and jemandem den Kopf waschen “to give someone a dressing-down” from Early New High German.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 530
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 479
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 692
  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. 180
  11. ^ 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, 1747
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 1744
  14. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  15. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  16. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  17. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org