Mannschaft

Forms

Mannschaft f (genitive Mannschaft, plural Mannschaften)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German manschaft, a derivative from German Mann + -schaft.^[2][3][1][4] Wiktionary reconstructs the formation as Proto-West Germanic *mannskapi (“humanness, humanity”) and compares English manship.^[1]

The base is Old High German man, Proto-Germanic *mann- (“man”), also continued in Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌽𐌰 (manna) and Old English mann.^[3][5][1] Pfeifer compares Sanskrit मनु (mánu, “man, mankind”) and traces them to Proto-Indo-European *manu-; most scholars connect this with the root Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to think”), making man “the thinking being”, but a link with the root meaning “to rise, tower” has also been proposed.^[3][5]

Kluge notes that the word had several meanings typical of an abstract or a collective noun: the status of a (feudal) man, and the body of his followers.^[2] The collective sense won through and was generalised.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German manschaft is recorded from the 13th century.^[2][4] It belonged to the language of feudal law: the relation of a vassal to his lord, the duty and the oath of homage, and the vassals or retainers themselves.^[3][6][7] Köbler's earliest source is Wolfram's Willehalm of about 1210.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Grimms' dictionary distinguishes four old uses: the state of being a man, virilitas; the feudal bond between vassal and lord; sexual potency, as in jemandem die Mannschaft benehmen, which Adelung marks as Upper German; and a body of men.^[8] Luther used the last sense in the Bible, where Holofernes threatens to slay Judith's manschaft, the young men of her land.^[8] Around 1800 Adelung called the first two senses obsolete in High German, where the word was used only as a collective without a plural: the men called out to fight a fire or for a hunt, and the common soldiers.^[9]

In modern German the word means a sports team, the crew of a ship or aircraft, the soldiers of a unit and, colloquially, a team of workers; the plural Mannschaften denotes the private soldiers as opposed to the officers.^[10] The word was borrowed into Czech as manšaft and Slovak as mančaft,^[11] and Törnqvist counts Swedish manskap among the German loans.^[11] Wiktionary notes that die Mannschaft has recently become a semi-official name for the German national football team, partly under the influence of the French la Mannschaft.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1210 – Middle High German manschaft appears in Wolfram's Willehalm.^[7]
• 13th century – The word is in general use in Middle High German.^[2]
• 1267 – First record in German-language charters.^[7]
• 16th century – Luther uses manschaft for the men of a country.^[8]
• 1793 – Adelung records it as a collective for firemen, beaters and common soldiers.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A team of players or athletes competing together.^[10][1]
2. The crew of a ship, less often of an aircraft.^[10][1]
3. The soldiers of a military unit; in vor versammelter Mannschaft (colloquial), in front of everyone present.^[10]
4. (colloquial) A team of people working together: die neue Mannschaft im Rathaus.^[10][4]
5. (military, in the plural) The private soldiers as distinct from the officers.^[10]

Word family

• mannschaftlich
• Fußballmannschaft
• Heimmannschaft
• Mannschaftsgeist
• Mannschaftsspiel
• Suchmannschaft

Related words

• Mann
• English manship

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 599
3. ^ a b c d 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 Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 532
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1602
9. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
10. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de