Natur

Forms

Natur f (genitive Natur, plural Naturen)^[1] Middle High German had natūre, natūr and natiure, the last with the sound of French nature; in the 15th and 16th centuries nataur was also written.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German natūre, inherited from Old High German natūra, borrowed from Latin nātūra (“birth; nature, character”), from nātus (“born”), the past participle of nāscor (“to be born, arise”).^[4][3][5] The Middle High German variant natiure shows the influence of Old French nature.^[3][6] The same loanword is Dutch natuur, English nature, French nature, Swedish natur and Icelandic náttúra.^[4]

Before the loan prevailed, the translators tried native words: Wulfila had rendered Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis) with Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌸𐍃 (gabaurþs, “birth”) or Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (wists, “being”), and the glossators of the 8th and 9th centuries used Old High German kichunni, and the interlinear Benedictine Rule chnuat.^[2] None of these lasted, and later purist substitutes failed as well.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German natūra is recorded from the 9th century, first in Otfrid's Gospel book (863–871) and then often in Notker, with a German declension, meaning “nature, essence”.^[4][8][2][9] The first sense was “inborn character, quality”, as in Latin, and its use for a person of a certain character is also Old High German.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the senses that Latin nātūra already had: inborn disposition, the character of a thing (die Natur der Sache), and the whole of what exists without human making.^[3][6] Middle High German used it widely, also for instinct, sexual desire and the body.^[10][11] Konrad von Megenberg's Buch der Natur (14th century) is a title of this kind.^[6] The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch notes that the Latin form, always present, kept the word from French influence in the 12th and 13th centuries and steadied its spelling in the 14th and 15th.^[7]

Many compounds date from the early modern period: Naturkündiger (16th century), Naturforscher and Naturkunde (17th century), Naturgeschichte and Naturwissenschaft (18th century), Naturgesetz (Kant) and Naturschutz (listed by Duden in 1934).^[3][6] Zurück zur Natur! renders the French retour à la nature, after Rousseau.^[5] English borrowed Naturphilosoph (1834) from German.^[12]

Timeline

• 863–871 – Otfrid uses natūra, the first Old High German record.^[2][8]
• c. 1000 – Notker uses the word often, and natūrlīh “natural” appears.^[2][3]
• 14th century – Konrad von Megenberg writes the Buch der Natur.^[6]
• 16th century – Naturkündiger “naturalist” is recorded.^[3]
• 17th century – Naturforscher and Naturkunde appear.^[3]
• 18th century – Naturwissenschaft and Naturgeschichte appear.^[3]
• 1934 – Duden lists Naturschutz.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (no plural) Nature: everything that exists or develops without human action: die Gesetze der Natur.^[5][1]
2. (no plural) The countryside, with its plants, animals and waters, little changed by people: unberührte Natur, in freier Natur “in the wild”.^[5][1]
3. The inborn character or temperament of a person or animal: Sie ist von Natur aus schüchtern. jemandem zur zweiten Natur werden, to become second nature to someone.^[5][1]
4. A person of a certain character: Er ist eine gesellige Natur.^[5]
5. (no plural) The particular character of a thing: Fragen grundsätzlicher Natur;^[5][13] in der Natur der Sache liegen, to be in the nature of things.^[5][13]
6. (no plural) The natural, untreated state of a material: ein Tisch in Eiche Natur;^[5] Natur sein, to be genuine, not artificial.^[5]
7. (regional, dated, euphemistic) The genitals; semen.^[5]

Word family

• natürlich
• Naturforscher
• Naturkunde
• Naturgeschichte
• Naturwissenschaft
• Naturgesetz
• Naturschutz
• Naturkatastrophe

Related words

• Naturell
• Naturalien
• Nation
• Latin natura

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 429
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 650
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ a b 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
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 234
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
12. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org