Kreis

Forms

Kreis m (genitive Kreises, plural Kreise)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kreiz, inherited from Old High German kreiz (“circle, circuit, district”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *krait, inherited from Proto-Germanic *kraitaz.^[2][3][1] Middle Low German has kreit or krēt (“circle, lists”), and forms with ablaut stand beside them: Middle Dutch krijt (“ring, area, lists”) and the Middle High German verb krîzen (“to draw a circle”).^[2][4][3] Dutch kreits was borrowed from a Lower Rhenish form, and Danish kreds and Swedish krets go back to a similar one.^[3][5] The word is missing in Gothic, Old Norse and Old English.^[6]

Kluge and the EWA connect it with Old High German krizzōn (“to scratch, engrave”), the source of kritzeln: a circle would first have been a ring scratched into the ground, such as a place marked out for a fight.^[2][3][7] Pfeifer and Duden think of a ring with a magical or sacred function, as the old sense “magic circle” suggests.^[4][7] If the different vowels are taken as expressive variants, the word can instead be joined to kratzen and the root Proto-Indo-European *gred- (“to scratch”), a link Pfeifer allows and Köbler gives with a question mark.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German kreiz is recorded only from the 12th century, in glosses, for Latin circus and for orbis, the circle of the inhabited earth.^[3][9] Middle High German used it for a circular line, a ring, an enclosed place for fights and courts, a magic circle, and a region or district.^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

The word was early applied to a ring formed by people, and then to any closed group, whatever its shape: im Kreise der Familie, Freundeskreis, Wirkungskreis.^[5][7] Since Early New High German it has also named an administrative district, including the circles into which the Holy Roman Empire was divided, and this sense lives on in Kreisstadt, Landkreis and Wahlkreis.^[5][11][12]

In mathematics Kreis replaced the older Zirkel only in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[5] Adelung, around 1800, still found Zirkel the usual word for an exactly round line.^[13] Gesichtskreis (17th century) is Zesen's rendering of Horizont, and Wendekreis translates Latin tropicus circulus.^[4] Kreislauf is dated to 1738 by Paul, who calls it a loan rendering of Latin circulatio, while Pfeifer places it at the start of the 18th century as a translation of English circulation, after Harvey's work on the circulation of the blood (1628).^[5][4] The Czech and Slovak word okres “district” was borrowed from German and reshaped, and English Vienna Circle (1934) renders Wiener Kreis.^[1][14]

Timeline

• 12th century – Old High German kreiz appears in glosses.^[2][3]
• 17th century – Zesen coins Gesichtskreis for Horizont, and Wendekreis appears.^[4]
• 17th–18th century – Kreis replaces Zirkel as the mathematical term.^[5]
• 1738 – Kreislauf is recorded in Hagedorn.^[5]
• 19th century – Blutkreislauf is formed.^[4]
• 1934 – English Vienna Circle is recorded.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (geometry) A circle, a closed curve whose points are all the same distance from the centre, and the surface it encloses: Zeichne einen Kreis mit fünf Zentimetern Radius.^[15][1]
2. A roughly circular arrangement, figure or movement: Die Kinder setzten sich im Kreis um das Feuer.^[15]
3. A group of people who have come together, a gathering.^[15]
4. A looser community of people with shared interests or personal ties: ein Kreis von Briefmarkensammlern.^[15][1]
5. (in the plural) Sections of society: in politischen Kreisen.^[15]
6. A set or series of related things or topics.^[15]
7. A bounded area, range or scope.^[15][1]
8. An administrative district, usually the level above the municipalities.^[15][1][16]
9. (handball) Short for Wurfkreis, the goal area.^[15]
10. (electrical engineering) Short for Stromkreis or Schaltkreis, a circuit.^[15][16]
11. (graph theory) A cycle.^[1]

Word family

• kreisen
• einkreisen
• umkreisen
• Umkreis
• Kreisel
• Kreislauf
• Blutkreislauf
• Gesichtskreis
• Wendekreis
• Kreisstadt
• Landkreis
• Wahlkreis
• Freundeskreis
• kreisrund
• Kreisverkehr

Related words

• kritzeln
• kratzen

Usage notes

Kreise ziehen, “to spread, have wide repercussions”, comes from the rings that spread on water.^[15] Jemandes Kreise stören, “to disturb someone in their work or private sphere”, recalls the words Noli turbare circulos meos (“do not disturb my circles”) attributed to Archimedes, who was drawing figures in the sand when a Roman soldier came upon him.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 540
3. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 771
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 2144
7. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 477
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ 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, 395
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
12. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
13. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
14. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
16. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org