Kunst

Forms

Kunst f (genitive Kunst, plural Künste)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kunst, inherited from Old High German kunst, inherited from Proto-Germanic *kunstiz (“knowledge, ability”).^[1][2][3] It is an abstract noun of the verb können, formed with a suffix in /t/ and a transitional /s/, as Gunst belongs to gönnen and Brunst to brennen.^[2][4][5][6] The same formation is Old Saxon kunst, Old Frisian kunst and Middle Dutch conste, whence Dutch kunst.^[6][2] Old English did not form the word, and Gothic does not record it.^[7] Old Norse kunnasta has another suffix, and the Grimms take it and Swedish konst as formed under German influence.^[7] Through können it goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”).^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German kunst is recorded in glosses from the early 9th century, and in Otfrid, Notker and Williram.^[3][8] The EWA dates the glosses from the 10th century.^[6] It meant “knowledge, understanding; ability, skill”, glossing Latin ars, peritia, sapientia and scientia.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

In keeping with the verb, the word first meant “knowledge” and “learning”, a sense still alive in Early New High German: Luther's die große Kunst macht dich rasend (Acts 26:24) is “much learning doth make thee mad”.^[9][5] From the 13th to the 17th century Kunst gradually took the place of List in this field of meaning.^[9] The seven liberal arts, die sieben freien Künste, keep the old sense.^[9][5]

It also meant any skill gained by practice, the swarze kunst “black art” of magic in Middle High German, and compounds like Kochkunst, Fechtkunst and Kriegskunst in the 16th century.^[9][4] The narrowing to artistic creation in painting, sculpture, literature and music, and the contrast between art and nature, took shape only in the 18th century, helped by Batteux's Les beaux-arts (1746) and the German classical writers.^[2][4][5] The sense “something made by people, not natural” appears as early as the 16th century and lives on in compounds such as Kunstdünger (19th century) and Kunststoff.^[4][5] In mining Kunst was a machine for raising water, and in the south-west a large stove.^[9] The word passed into Polish as kunszt (1450), into Ukrainian (1577) and into Hungarian.^[10]

Timeline

• Early 9th century – Old High German kunst appears in glosses.^[3][2]
• 1450 – Polish kunszt “juggler's trick” is recorded, borrowed from German.^[10]
• 1561 – Maaler lists Kochkunst, Kriegskunst and Fechtkunst.^[9]
• 16th century – Kunst is used of things made by people as opposed to nature.^[4]
• 18th century – The word narrows to artistic creation.^[2][9]
• 1870 – Virchow coins Kunstfehler “medical malpractice”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Art, creative work in materials, words or sounds: die bildende Kunst.^[11][1]
2. Works of art, the art of a period or an artist: die Kunst der Romantik.^[11][1]
3. Skill, an ability gained by practice; a craft: die Kunst des Bogenschießens.^[11][1]
4. (colloquial) A feat, something difficult: Das ist keine Kunst.^[4][1]
5. (mostly in compounds) Something made artificially rather than natural: Kunstrasen, Kunststoff.^[1][12]

Word family

• Künstler
• künstlerisch
• künstlich
• künsteln
• gekünstelt
• Kunststück
• Kunstwerk
• Kunststoff
• Kunstfehler
• Baukunst
• Dichtkunst
• Kochkunst

Related words

• können

Usage notes

Die schwarze Kunst is magic, probably a rendering of Late Latin necromantia, wrongly connected with Latin niger “black”; it also names printing, after the printer's black ink.^[11] The colloquial greeting Was macht die Kunst? asks how someone's work is going.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 549
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ 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, 898
7. ^ 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, 2666
8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 186
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de