Etymologically
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Opfer

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɔpfər/, [ˈʔɔpfɐ], [ˈʔɔpɸɐ][1]

Forms

Opfer n (genitive Opfers, plural Opfer, diminutive Öpferchen n)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German opfer, inherited from Old High German opfar, formed in Old High German from the verb opfern.[2][3][4][5] The same formation is Old Saxon opper and Middle Low German opper or offer.[3][2]

The origin of the verb is disputed.[2] In most of the Germanic languages the Christian notion of sacrifice was expressed by a borrowing of Latin offerō (“to bring before, offer”): Old High German offarōn, Old Frisian offria, Old English offrian and Old Norse offra.[2][3] The High German verb opfarōn, with the affricate /pf/, does not match that source in its sound.[2] The traditional view, which Pfeifer and Duden follow, takes it from Ecclesiastical Latin operor (“to work; to perform a religious rite, to give alms”), which came over the Alps into the church language of southern Germany.[3][4][6] Kluge finds this unsatisfactory in meaning and reports that recent research prefers to see an irregular development of the borrowing from Latin, though that needs further assumptions.[2] Paul combines the views: its form comes from the Latin word for working, but its religious sense was influenced by the verb borrowed from the Latin word for offering.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German opfar is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses from about 765, and then in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram.[3][7][8] It meant an offering or sacrifice, and also a service;[7][8] ferbrunnen opfar was a burnt offering.[7][8] The verb opfarōn at first meant “to do a work” as well as “to make an offering”.[3][6]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German opfer also meant the Mass and the host, and the gifts made to the church.[9][6] In Christian use it was above all the death of Christ as an atoning sacrifice.[6] Adelung notes that in elevated style it was any gift made as a sign of devotion, and also a thing given up for another's sake.[10] From the latter came the sense “self-denial, a sacrifice made for someone else”.[6][5]

The sense “someone who is killed or harmed by something” is found in Scheffel, who wrote of das Opfer der Lawine “the victim of the avalanche”.[6][5] It is fixed in the legal pair Täter und Opfer and in Opfer des Faschismus, abbreviated OdF after the war.[6] In the youth language of the 2000s Opfer became an insult for a weak or inferior person.[11][1] Slovene took ofer “sacrifice” from German.[12]

Timeline

  • About 765 – Old High German opfar appears in glosses.[7]
  • 9th century – The Tatian and Otfrid use opfar.[7]
  • 1060–1080 – Middle High German opfer is used in the Genesis.[9]
  • 18th century – Adelung records the sense “something given up for another”.[10]
  • 2000s – Opfer becomes a youth-language insult.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A religious sacrifice, the offering of someone or something to a god: ein Opfer darbringen.[5][1]
  2. An offering, the thing sacrificed.[5][11]
  3. A sacrifice for the sake of others; something given up: Für ihr Studium brachten die Eltern große Opfer.[5][11]
  4. A victim, a person killed or harmed by something: Der Sturm forderte drei Opfer.[5][1]
  5. (chess) The deliberate giving up of a piece for an advantage.[11]
  6. (slang, derogatory) A weak or dependent person, a loser.[1][11]

Word family

  • Opferlamm
  • Opfergabe
  • Opfergang
  • Opferstock
  • Opfertod
  • opfern
  • aufopfern
  • operieren
  • English offer

Usage notes

Einer Sache zum Opfer fallen is to be killed or destroyed by something, and jemandem etwas zum Opfer bringen to sacrifice something to someone.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 671
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b c Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 245
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  11. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  12. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de