Mittel

Forms

Mittel n (genitive Mittels, plural Mittel)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German mittel (“middle; means, mediation”), the adjective mittel used as a noun.^[2][3][4] That adjective is Old High German mittil (“middle”), a derivative of the Germanic adjective in Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌳𐌾𐌹𐍃 (midjis, “middle”), which also gave Mitte.^[2][3][5] Kluge reconstructs it as Proto-Germanic *medlija-, found also in Old English middel and Old Saxon middil- in compounds; without the /j/ and with a full-grade suffix it is Old Norse meðal (“middle”).^[2] The noun is also Middle Low German middel, Dutch middel and English middle.^[3]

The Germanic adjective continues Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”), also found in Sanskrit मध्य (mádhya), Latin medius and Ancient Greek μέσος (mésos).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is Middle High German; the Old High German word was only an adjective.^[6] Köbler's earliest source for it dates from before 1190, and gives the senses “middle, centre, middle way, aid, means, mediation, obstacle, interruption”.^[7] Pfeifer adds “what stands in the middle, separating and hindering”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun first meant the middle or the middle part, and until the 18th century it was used like Mitte: Luther writes of a people coming down aus dem mittel des Landes (Judges 9:37).^[8][6] It then meant what lies between two things or two opposites, also what separates them, and the way of getting past this obstacle to a goal.^[3][4] So it came, like Latin medium, to mean “means”: what stands between the doer and the aim and serves to reach it; hence vermitteln.^[2][4]

Since the 17th century the plural Mittel alone means property, money, capital, whence bemittelt “well off” (17th century) and mittellos “penniless” (19th century).^[3][2] The preposition mittels “by means of” arose in the 17th century from phrases such as durch Mittel, as a frozen genitive.^[3] The sense “medicine, remedy” is a narrowing of “means”.^[9]

Timeline

• Before 1190 – First record of the Middle High German noun.^[7]
• 1483 – A German Bible has in dem mittel der wasser (“in the midst of the waters”, Genesis 1:6).^[6]
• 17th century – The plural Mittel “funds”;^[3] mittels and bemittelt.^[3]
• 18th century – Mittel ceases to be used for Mitte.^[8]
• 19th century – mittellos.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A means; something that serves to reach an aim.^[9][1]
2. A remedy, medicine.^[9][1]
3. A substance used for a particular purpose, an agent: ein Mittel gegen Rost.^[9][1]
4. (plural) Funds, money, capital.^[9][1]
5. An average, mean value.^[9][1]
6. (printing, dated) A type size of 14 points.^[1]

Word family

• vermitteln
• bemittelt
• mittellos
• mittels
• Hilfsmittel
• Lebensmittel

Related words

• Mitte
• mittel
• English middle

Usage notes

Mittel zum Zweck sein is to be used by someone for his or her own ends, Mittel und Wege finden to find ways and means, and sich ins Mittel legen (formal, dated) to intervene on someone's behalf.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. 628
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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 627
6. ^ 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, 2381
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag