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Liga

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Etymology and origin of the German word Liga

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
15th century
Borrowed from
Spanish liga
Ultimate origin
Latin (ligō)

Pronunciation

Forms

Liga f (genitive Liga, plural Ligen)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish liga (“alliance, league”), from ligar (“to bind, unite”), from Latin ligō (“to bind, tie”).[2][3][4] It came into use in the 15th century as a name for Catholic alliances.[2][4] Wiktionary also names Italian lega as a source,[1] and the FWB, whose quotations date from 1579 and 1616, derives the Early New High German word from French ligue.[5]

The word is also Dutch liga, Swedish liga and Norwegian liga, while English has league.[2] The French and English forms are recorded from the 15th century.[6] It is related to legieren and Ligatur.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 15th century Liga meant an alliance or league, especially a confessional one of Catholic powers.[3][2] The Zimmern Chronicle has do gab es ain rechten ligam “then there was a real league”, and Albertinus uses the word in 1599.[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the word was known above all as the name of political and confessional alliances: the Holy League of 1538, after Italian lega santa, and the Catholic League of 1609, the union of almost all the Catholic estates of the Empire against the Protestant Union, which fought in the Thirty Years' War.[3][7] Dictionaries listed it from 1709, Wächtler as Ligue and Hübner as Liga.[6] Later Allianz and Koalition pushed it aside, but it was taken up again in modern times, as in the Arab League of 1945, after English Arab League.[3]

In sport Liga has named a division of clubs grouped by performance since the end of the 19th century, mostly in compounds such as Oberliga and Bundesliga.[3][4] Paul notes that this sense was entered in the Sprach-Brockhaus of 1944.[7] The German word was borrowed into Polish, Czech, Russian, Hungarian, Slovene and Swedish.[1]

Timeline

  • 15th century – Borrowed from Spanish as a name for Catholic alliances.[2][3]
  • 1538 – The Holy League, after Italian lega santa.[3]
  • 1579 – First quotation in the FWB.[5]
  • 1599 – Albertinus uses the word.[6]
  • 1609 – The Catholic League is formed against the Protestant Union.[3]
  • 1709 – First entered in dictionaries.[6]
  • End of the 19th century – First use for a division in sport.[3]
  • 1944 – The sporting sense is entered in the Sprach-Brockhaus.[7]
  • 1945 – The Arab League is founded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A league, an alliance or association with political or ideological aims: die Arabische Liga, die Liga für Menschenrechte.[8][9]
  2. (sports) A division in which qualified club teams of a region compete: Die Mannschaft ist in die dritte Liga aufgestiegen.[8][9]

Word family

  • Bundesliga
  • Oberliga
  • Kreisliga

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. 578
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ a b Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  6. ^ a b c d e 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
  7. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  8. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  9. ^ a b Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
Cite this entry

“Liga.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/de/Liga. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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