Etymologically
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Morgen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈmɔrɡən/, [ˈmɔʁ-], [ˈmɔɐ̯-][1]

Forms

Morgen m (genitive Morgens, plural Morgen or (colloquial) Morgende)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German morgen, inherited from Old High German morgan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *murginaz (“morning”).[2][3][4][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌲𐌹𐌽𐍃 (maurgins), Old Norse morginn, Old English morgen, Old Frisian morn and Old Saxon morgan, and English morning is an extension of it, formed like evening.[2][3][5] Beside it stand forms with other ablaut grades of the suffix, such as myrginn and mergen;[4][3] Kroonen finds the relation between them unclear, and Gothic and Norse continue a form with the suffix Proto-Germanic *-ena- against West Germanic *murganaz.[4][3]

Its further origin is uncertain.[4][6] Kluge takes the original meaning to be “twilight” and compares Slavic words for growing dark, from a root Proto-Indo-European *merk- (“to flicker, sparkle”) also seen in Old Irish mrecht (“variegated”) and Lithuanian mérkti (“to close the eyes, blink”); he adds that Sanskrit मरीचि (márīci, “ray of light”) may be closer to the Germanic word.[2] Pfeifer compares, with reservations, Old Church Slavonic мракъ (mrakŭ, “darkness”), Russian морок (mórok, “darkness, fog”) and Sanskrit मर्क (marká, “eclipse of the sun”), and Duden prefers the simpler root Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to flicker, shimmer”).[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German morgan is recorded from the end of the 8th century in glosses and then in the Monsee Fragments, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[8][9] Besides “morning, beginning of the day” it already meant “the next day”, and it glossed Latin iugerum, a measure of land.[8]

Semantic evolution

The measure of land, recorded in Old High German, was as much land as a team of oxen could plough in one morning.[2][3][10] Polish borrowed it as morga (1607), and English took morgen from Dutch in the 1620s.[11][12] From the 15th century, and more often from Luther on, Morgen also meant the east, where the sun rises;[3][7] Luther's Morgenland “the East” rendered Greek anatolḗ.[3][7] The greeting guten Morgen goes back to Middle High German and is short for “God give you a good morning”.[5] In newer use the word can stand for a new beginning.[5]

The adverb morgen “tomorrow” was the dative “in the morning”, then “on the following morning”, and the noun das Morgen “the future” was made from it.[2][3][1] Wieland's 1766 translation of Hamlet's I scent the morning air as ich wittere die Morgen-Luft gave the colloquial phrase Morgenluft wittern, to see one's chance.[5]

Timeline

  • Late 8th century – Old High German morgan appears in glosses.[8][9]
  • 10th century – First use as a measure of land.[3]
  • 15th century – Morgen begins to mean “east”.[3][7]
  • 16th century – Luther's Bible has Morgenland.[7][5]
  • 1607 – Polish borrows the land measure as morga.[11]
  • 1620s – English takes morgen as a land measure from Dutch.[12]
  • 1766 – Wieland coins Morgen-Luft wittern in his Hamlet translation.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Morning, the time of day around daybreak and the early part of the forenoon: Am nächsten Morgen regnete es. Guten Morgen![10][1]
  2. (archaic, poetic) The east.[1][13]
  3. (dated) A morgen, an old measure of land, varying by region, often about a quarter of a hectare: Der Hof hatte dreißig Morgen Acker.[10][1][13]
  4. das Morgen (neuter, no plural): the future, tomorrow: Sie denken nur an heute und nicht an das Morgen.[1][10]

Word family

  • morgig
  • morgens
  • morgendlich
  • Morgenland
  • Morgenrot
  • Morgenröte
  • Morgengabe
  • Morgenstunde
  • morgen
  • English morning
  • English morn

Usage notes

The proverb Morgenstund hat Gold im Mund (“the morning hour has gold in its mouth”), meaning that work goes best early in the day, may come from a Latin school sentence, aurora habet aurum in ore, in which the dawn is pictured with gold in her hair and mouth.[7] A Cologne coin of the 15th century was also called morgen; the Grimms thought the name was a corruption of Latin mauriculus.[14]

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. 635
  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 d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 2556
  7. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 565
  8. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 557
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b c d 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
  12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  14. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 2563