Etymologically
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Kultur

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Pronunciation

  • /kʊlˈtuːɐ̯/[1]

Forms

Kultur f (genitive Kultur, plural Kulturen)[1] Older texts spell it Cultur.[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cultūra (“tilling, cultivation; care, training of the mind”), from colō (“to till, tend, cultivate”), borrowed in the 17th century.[3][4][5] Paul also names French culture as a model.[2] Pfeifer notes that the word was used in Latin inflected form in German texts before it was adopted as a German word towards the end of the 17th century.[4] The same borrowing is Dutch cultuur, English culture and Swedish kultur.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul cites Cultur der Sprache (“cultivation of language”) from Christian Weise in 1692, and the agricultural Cultur der Seide (“silk farming”) from 1708.[2] Kluge explains that the word first meant tillage and the care of crops and livestock, and was transferred in the 17th century after the Latin cultura animi, education towards social life, the liberal arts and an honourable life, as in Pufendorf.[3]

Semantic evolution

In the second half of the 18th century the agricultural sense spread with the rise of farming and forestry (Agrikultur is recorded in 1705), but the word gained its weight in the figurative use: from about 1700 the training and perfection of the individual, after Cicero's cultura autem animi philosophia est (“philosophy is the cultivation of the mind”).[4][2] The thinkers of the German Enlightenment, Herder and Kant above all, extended it from the individual to peoples and to humanity, and made it a catchword of the age.[4][2] Mendelssohn, around 1765, counted Bildung, Cultur und Aufklärung among the effects of people's efforts to improve their social condition.[2]

Nietzsche wrote in 1873 that Cultur ist vor allem Einheit des künstlerischen Stiles in allen Lebensäußerungen eines Volkes (“culture is above all unity of artistic style in all the expressions of a people's life”).[2] A German peculiarity is the opposition of Kultur and Zivilisation, which begins with Kant and is sharpest in Spengler.[2] Many compounds followed, such as Kulturgeschichte (1784, Schlözer), and the adjective kulturell was formed in the 20th century with a French-looking ending.[2][6] In the laboratory, Kultur also names a culture of bacteria.[2][7] Yiddish borrowed the word as kultur.[1]

Timeline

  • 1692 – Christian Weise writes of Cultur der Sprache.[2]
  • 1705 – Agrikultur is recorded.[2]
  • 1708 – Cultur der Seide “silk farming”.[2]
  • c. 1765 – Mendelssohn names Bildung, Cultur und Aufklärung together.[2]
  • 1784 – Schlözer uses Kulturgeschichte.[2]
  • 1873 – Nietzsche defines Cultur as unity of artistic style.[2]
  • 20th century – The adjective kulturell is formed.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The whole of the intellectual, artistic and creative achievements of a community; culture.[7][1]
  2. The culture of a particular people, region or period: die Kultur der Etrusker.[7][8]
  3. refinement or high standard in a human activity or way of life: eine gepflegte Kultur des Streitens.[7][5]
  4. (agriculture, gardening) The cultivation of the soil.[7][5]
  5. (agriculture, forestry) Young plants grown on a large area; a plantation.[7][8]
  6. (biology, medicine) Microorganisms or tissue cells grown on a nutrient medium.[7][8]

Word family

  • kulturell
  • Kulturgeschichte
  • Kulturkampf
  • Kulturpolitik
  • Agrikultur
  • Kult
  • kultivieren
  • Kolonie
  • English culture

Usage notes

Von der Kultur unbeleckt sein (“untouched by culture”) is colloquial for being uncivilised or uncultured.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 548
  4. ^ a b c d 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 Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 495
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org