Lehrer

Forms

Lehrer m (genitive Lehrers, plural Lehrer; feminine Lehrerin)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German lērære, inherited from Old High German lērāri, the agent noun of lehren (“to teach”), lēren.^[3][4][5][6] The same formation is Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌰𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍃 (laisareis) Old Saxon lērari, Dutch leraar, Swedish lärare and Danish lærer;^[7][4] Old English and English have no such noun.^[7][4]

The verb is Proto-Germanic *laizijaną (“to teach”), also in Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃𐌾𐌰𐌽 (laisjan) and Old English lǣran, a causative “to make know” of a preterite-present verb that in Gothic meant “I know”.^[3][4] The further origin is uncertain: Pfeifer connects it, together with lernen and List, with a root Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“track, furrow”), while Kluge thinks this assumption doubtful at every point and prefers a connection with Old Irish lenaid (“stays, adheres, follows”).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German lērāri is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses, the Benedictine Rule and the Tatian, mostly meaning “teacher of the word of God”.^[6][4] Middle High German lērære rendered Latin doctor.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages and in Luther's Bible the word often meant a teacher of religion, as of Ezra, der ein lerer war in den worten des herrn.^[7][4] Fifteenth-century glossaries use lerer for Latin doctor, pedagogus and didascalus.^[7]

Adelung defines it as someone who teaches others, especially with a public office to do so, and notes that in the narrowest sense the clergy were called Lehrer.^[2] Today it is above all the professional title of a school teacher.^[1] The feminine Lehrerin is recorded from the 15th century, after an Old High German lērārin for Latin doctrix.^[4]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German lērāri “teacher (of the Word)”.^[4][6]
• 1150–1190 – Middle High German lērære in Heinrich von Melk.^[8]
• 15th century – Lehrerin.^[4]
• c. 1800 – Adelung records Lehrer in Schulen and the clerical sense.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A teacher at a school (a profession): Unsere Lehrerin für Mathematik ist sehr streng.^[1][9]
2. A teacher at a university or college: Er wirkte jahrzehntelang als Lehrer an der Universität Bonn.^[1]
3. An instructor, especially in sport: Sie arbeitet im Winter als Lehrer in einer Skischule.^[1]
4. Someone who passes on knowledge to others and serves as a model; a mentor: Der alte Tischler war sein wichtigster Lehrer.^[1]

Word family

• Lehrerin
• Lehrerzimmer
• Grundschullehrer
• Hochschullehrer

Related words

• lehren
• Lehre
• Lehrling
• gelehrt
• lernen
• List

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
2. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
3. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 568
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 570
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org