Menge

Forms

Menge f (genitive Menge, plural Mengen)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German menige, inherited from Old High German managī, inherited from Proto-Germanic *managį̄ (“multitude”).^[2][3][1] It is an abstract noun formed to the adjective Proto-Germanic *managaz in its old sense “much, many”, which survives as manch, just as Länge is formed to lang and Höhe to hoch.^[2][3][4] The same noun is Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐌴𐌹 (managei), Old Saxon menigi, Old English menigu and Old Frisian menie, while Old Norse has the neuter mengi.^[2][3] Outside Germanic, Kluge compares Old Church Slavonic мъножьство (mŭnožĭstvo, “multitude”) and, built on a simpler base, Lithuanian minià (“crowd”).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German managī is first recorded in glosses of the 8th century.^[3][6] Schützeichel finds it in Isidor, the Monsee fragments, the Benedictine Rule, the Muspilli, Otfrid, Tatian and Notker, with the senses “crowd, abundance, multitude, number, host”.^[7] Otfrid uses it of the crowd from which Christ withdrew, rendering the Vulgate's turba.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The form menge already occurs in Middle High German, but menige lasted well into the 16th century, when Luther's use made Menge the only form.^[8] The oldest sense was a gathering of people, a crowd;^[9] Goethe used it with a note of contempt, for “the masses”, and a Menge could also be an armed band, still in Schiller.^[9] With a genitive it came to mean a large number (die Menge der Gottesboten in Herder), and as the genitive was no longer felt, eine Menge Zuhörer appeared (Stieler, 1691); Luther already applied the word to animals and substances.^[9] Die Menge and in Menge then came to mean “very much, plenty”.^[9] In the 19th century it became the term for a set in mathematics, in Mengenlehre “set theory”, and French ensemble is recorded in this sense from 1890.^[9][10] Swedish mängd and Danish mængde are formations made under German influence.^[8]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German managī appears in glosses.^[3][6]
• 863–871 – Otfrid uses menigī of a crowd.^[6][8]
• 16th century – Menge replaces menige;^[8][9] Luther uses it of animals and substances.^[8][9]
• 1691 – Stieler records eine Menge Zuhörer “a lot of listeners”.^[9]
• 19th century – Menge becomes the mathematical term for a set.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A certain quantity or amount: Für das Rezept braucht man die doppelte Menge Zucker. Colloquial in rauen Mengen, in very large amounts.^[11][1]
2. A large number or amount, often with the indefinite article: Sie hat in diesem Jahr eine Menge Bücher gelesen. Colloquial jede Menge, plenty.^[11][12]
3. (mathematics) A set, a collection of distinct elements taken as a whole.^[11][1]
4. A large number of people close together; a crowd: Die Menge jubelte, als die Sängerin auf die Bühne kam.^[11][1]

Word family

• Menschenmenge
• Mengenlehre

Related words

• manch
• English many

Usage notes

Early New High German had two rarer words spelled menge: a masculine meaning an itinerant dealer or pedlar, from Latin mango “dealer”, and a plant name for agrimony, shortened from Odermennig.^[8][13][14]

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. 615
3. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 557
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 214
8. ^ a b c d e f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 2006
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
13. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
14. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 2014