Etymologically
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Krieg

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Pronunciation

  • [kʁiːk], [kriːç][1]

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
  • 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