Land

Forms

Land n (genitive Landes or Lands, plural Länder or (elevated or poetic) Lande, diminutive Ländchen n or Ländlein n)^[1] The Middle High German plural was diu lant, still found in the 16th century.^[2][3] Länder, on the model of neuter nouns such as Kalb, Kälber, appears from the early 14th century, and Lande from the 15th.^[2][3] Adelung already called Lande elevated, and it survives in Niederlande and in phrases such as aus fernen Landen.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German lant, inherited from Old High German lant, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *land, inherited from Proto-Germanic *landą (“land”).^[4][3][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌽𐌳 (land), Old Norse land, Old English land, Old Frisian lond and Old Saxon land, continued in English land, Dutch land and Swedish land.^[4][3][5] A form in another ablaut grade is the Swedish dialect word linda (“fallow field”), and Pfeifer and the Duden probably add Old Norse lundr (“grove”).^[4][3][6]

Outside Germanic it is compared with Old Irish land (“open space”), the Gaulish source of French lande (“heath”), Russian ляда (ljáda, “cleared land, fallow”) and Czech lada (“fallow land”), which point to Proto-Indo-European *lendʰ- (“open land, heath”).^[3][6][4] Kluge adds Oettinger's comparison with a Hieroglyphic Luwian verb meaning “to extend (borders)”, which suits the senses “fallow field” and “cleared land” and would make the starting point “extension, new land”.^[4] A further link with Lende “loin” would need more support.^[4] Wahrig and Köbler connect the root with *lem- (“to break”).^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German lant is recorded from 765 in glosses, then in the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[8][9] It meant land as opposed to town and water, homeland, field, region, territory, realm, the inhabited earth and the shore;^[10] Frankôno lant was Franconia and lant giheizes the Promised Land.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Kluge notes that the meaning had already shifted to “the territory of a people or state” in Germanic times, and that the contrasts with the town and with the water followed.^[4] Paul describes the oldest sense as a word for the substance of the earth's surface without fixed limits, still present in Ackerland and Bauland.^[2]

The phrase zu Wasser und zu Lande is recorded by Stieler in 1691.^[2] Etwas an Land ziehen “to get hold of something” probably referred at first to salvaging goods washed ashore after a shipwreck, or to a big fish that the angler has to pull onto the bank.^[6] The verb landen came from Low German in the 17th century and replaced the older länden, Old High German lenten.^[3][6] Polish borrowed the word as ląd “dry land”, recorded in 1585.^[11]

Timeline

• 765 – Old High German lant appears in glosses.^[8]
• Early 14th century – The plural Länder is first recorded.^[2]
• 15th century – The plural Lande appears.^[3][2]
• 16th century – The old plural lant is still in use.^[2]
• 1585 – Polish ląd is recorded as a borrowing.^[11]
• 17th century – landen replaces länden.^[3]
• 1691 – Stieler records zu Wasser und zu Lande.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Land as opposed to sea, dry land: Die Robben ruhen sich an Land aus.^[12][1]
2. Usable ground, soil: Er pachtet zwei Hektar Land.^[12]
3. An area or stretch of country without fixed bounds (plural Lande, poetic): Hinter dem Wald begann flaches Land.^[12]
4. The countryside, as opposed to the town: Sie sind aus der Stadt aufs Land gezogen.^[12][1]
5. A country, a state with its own territory: Die beiden Länder schlossen einen Vertrag.^[12][1]
6. A constituent state of a federation, such as the German and Austrian Bundesländer: Bildung ist Sache der Länder.^[1]

Word family

• Landschaft
• Länderei
• ländlich
• landen
• Ausland
• Inland
• Bundesland
• Festland
• Landstreicher
• Landstrich
• Ackerland
• Flachland
• Brachland

Related words

• Gelände
• Lende
• English land

Usage notes

Land unter means that a coast or island is flooded, and Land sehen is to see a way out of difficulties.^[12] The proverb andere Länder, andere Sitten warns travellers to expect different customs.^[12] Bleibe im Lande und nähre dich redlich (“stay in the land and feed yourself honestly”) comes from Psalm 37:3.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e f g h i j 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 e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 557
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 494
7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 192
10. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 1029
11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag