Kurs

Forms

Kurs m (genitive Kurses, plural Kurse)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cursus (“running, course, journey, circulation”), borrowed several times, by different routes.^[2][3][4] The earliest form, Old High German curs (about 800), and Middle High German curs “series of prescribed prayers” took the church sense of cursus, “the canonical hours”.^[4][3]

From the 15th century it came in again under the influence of the Romance languages and Dutch: the nautical “course of a ship” through Middle Low German kors, from Middle Dutch coers and Old French cors, French cours and course; the commercial “price, exchange rate” in the 16th and 17th centuries after Italian corso (“circulation of money; value”) and the French noun; and the academic “course of lectures” from the 16th century, taken directly from Medieval Latin cursus (“series of lectures”), at first keeping the Latin form.^[2][3][5][6] The sporting sense “racecourse” (early 20th century) probably follows English course.^[3]

The Latin noun comes from currō (“to run”).^[2][7] The same word came through Italian as Korso.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German word appears around 800 in the Benedictine Rule, and in the Mainz and Palatine confessions, meaning a prayer exercise, especially the canonical hour of Vespers.^{[4][8][9][10]} Middle High German curs “series of prescribed prayers” is recorded in the late 12th century.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Paul has the nautical word as koers in 1431, then kors, Cours (1598, from French) and Curs (1622, from Latin).^[12] Around 1600 the seaman's term entered general usage as “direction”, as in seinen Kurs nehmen; in the 19th century it was used figuratively for a political line, and in the 20th century aviation took it over.^[3]

In commerce corrß “bill of lading” is recorded once in the second half of the 15th century; from the middle of the 16th century, and commonly in the 17th, Kurs meant a price set by demand, replacing the loan translation Lauf; at the end of the 17th century it also came to mean the circulation of money, whence in Kurs kommen and außer Kurs setzen.^[3][2] Kursieren “to circulate” followed in 1672.^[12][3]

The academic sense began at the universities in the 16th century: the Heidelberg statutes of 1558 require bachelors of theology to hold their cursus.^[13][3] Kursus remained in use beside the shortened Kurs, which spread in the 17th and 18th centuries (Lehr-Cursen, 1786).^[3][12]

Timeline

• c. 800 – Old High German curs “prayer exercise” in the Benedictine Rule.^[4][10]
• 1431 – The nautical form koers is recorded.^[12]
• 1558 – cursus “course of lectures” in the Heidelberg university statutes.^[13]
• 1598 – Cours, from French.^[12]
• c. 1600 – The seaman's word passes into general use as “direction”.^[3]
• 1622 – The form Curs.^[12]
• 1668 – Cours as the rate of exchange in commerce.^[12]
• Early 20th century – Kurs “racecourse” in sport.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The course or heading of a ship or aircraft; figuratively, the line followed in politics or business: Die Partei schlägt einen neuen Kurs ein.^[6][1][14]
2. (sports) A racecourse, track.^[6][15]
3. A series of lessons, a class: ein Kurs für Anfänger; also the participants of such a course.^[6][1][15]
4. The market price of securities or currencies, the exchange rate: Der Kurs des Euro ist gestiegen.^[6][1][14]

Word family

• Kursbuch
• kursieren
• Kuschelkurs
• Sprachkurs
• Wechselkurs
• Kurswagen

Related words

• Kursus
• Korso
• kursiv
• konkurrieren
• English course

Usage notes

Hoch im Kurs stehen is “to be highly valued, popular”.^[6][3] An unrelated 16th-century Kurs or Curs, used by Hans Sachs and in Fischart's Gargantua (curszwein), was a fine wine from Corsica, from Italian vino corso.^[16][17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 551
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ 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, 921
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
8. ^ 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, 543
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 187
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
14. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
15. ^ a b Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
16. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 2818
17. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de