Krieg

Forms

Krieg m (genitive Krieges or Kriegs, plural Kriege, diminutive Kriegchen n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kriec, inherited from Old High German krieg (also kreg), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *krīg.^[2][1][3] The word is found only in German and Dutch, with Middle Low German krīch, Middle Dutch crijch and Dutch krijg; Old Frisian halskrīga (“stiffness of the neck”) belongs with them.^[2][4][5] The vowel of the Old High German form points to a late Germanic /ē/ where the other languages have /ī/.^[3]

Its origin is unclear.^[2][5][4] Kluge thinks most likely of a base Proto-Indo-European *gʷrei-, seen also in Ancient Greek βρίμη (brímē, “force, fury”) and ὕβρις (húbris, “arrogance, violence”), and perhaps in Old Irish bríg (“strength, power”) and Latvian grīns (“grim, angry”).^[2] Pfeifer asks whether it belongs to the root of kirre “heavy” or to Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, wind”), and notes de Vries's suggestion of a substrate word of continental western Europe.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are glosses of the second quarter of the 9th century, from Alemannic, where kreg renders Latin pertinacia “stubbornness”.^[3][6] Old High German krieg thus meant “obstinacy, persistence”, a sense Paul and Pfeifer also give.^[7][5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German kriec covered effort, striving for or against something, resistance, quarrel, dispute in words or in court, and armed fighting.^[5][4] The modern sense “war” prevailed in late Middle High German, pushing out the older Middle High German urliuge;^[7] Gottfried's Tristan already uses both side by side.^[7] The wider sense “quarrel” lingered, as in Mauthner's essay collection Kleiner Krieg (1879).^[7]

The derived verb kriegen first meant “to strive, fight”; its colloquial modern sense “to get” comes from Middle German erkrīgen “to win by striving”.^[4][8] Kriegserklärung and Kriegsschauplatz (18th century) are loan translations of French déclaration de guerre and théâtre de la guerre.^[4] English took sitzkrieg (1940) from German.^[9]

Timeline

• 2nd quarter of the 9th century – kreg glosses Latin pertinacia.^[3]
• Late Middle High German – “war” becomes the main sense.^[7]
• 1538 – kriegerisch is recorded.^[7]
• 18th century – Kriegserklärung is formed after French.^[4]
• 1940 – English borrows sitzkrieg.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. War: an armed conflict between states or peoples lasting some time: einen Krieg erklären, der Dreißigjährige Krieg.^[10][1]
2. A long-running fierce conflict or quarrel between groups or people: Zwischen den Nachbarn herrscht seit Jahren Krieg.^[11][10]

Word family

• Krieger
• kriegerisch
• kriegen
• Bürgerkrieg
• Weltkrieg
• Kriegserklärung

Related words

• Kraft
• kregel
• English sitzkrieg

Usage notes

The Grimms' dictionary has a separate article for an obsolete Krieg that named a winch for drawing a crossbow or moving guns, recorded from 1388 in Nuremberg.^[12] Polish took it as kryg (1445).^[9] Clausewitz defined war as eine Fortsetzung des politischen Verkehrs mit Einmischung anderer Mittel (“a continuation of political dealings by other means”).^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. 542
3. ^ 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, 785
4. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 479
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
9. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
10. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
12. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 2211