Etymologically
Log in

Ort

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 17:09. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ɔʁt/, [ʔɔʁt], [ʔɔɐ̯t][1]

Forms

Ort m (genitive Ortes or Orts, plural Orte or (jargon) Örter, diminutive Örtchen n)[1] Beside the plural Orte there is Örter, which the Grimms' dictionary describes as more individual against the collective Orte.[2] In the 15th and 16th centuries the plurals örte and ört were also used.[2] Early New High German, and Upper German still today, also treated the word as a neuter.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ort, inherited from Old High German ort (“point, tip”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *oʀd, inherited from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz (“point”).[4][5][1] The same word is Old Saxon ord, Old Norse oddr (“point of a weapon, spear”), Old English ord and Old Frisian ord, and today Dutch oord, Swedish udd and Icelandic oddur.[4][6][7] It is not recorded in Gothic, but the Old Norse /dd/ points to an older /zd/.[2][6] The first meaning was “point”, especially the point of a weapon, then “outermost end”, and, seen as a location, “region, spot”.[4][8]

Its further origin is uncertain.[5] Outside Germanic, Kluge and Orel compare Lithuanian usnìs (“thistle”) and Albanian usht (“ear of grain”), which share the sense “point”.[4][7] Pfeifer adds Latvian usne (“thistle”) and Old Irish fennaid (“flays”) and sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *u̯es- (“to prick”).[5][9] Kroonen suggests instead an old compound of Proto-Germanic *uz (“out”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), comparing Lithuanian iñdas (“vessel”), literally “in-put”.[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German ort is recorded from the last quarter of the 8th century in glosses and in the Hildebrandslied, and later in Notker, meaning “point of a weapon, hook, sting, corner, edge, border, end”.[10][11] The Hildebrandslied says that gifts should be received with the spear, ort widar orte “point against point”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German ort named the outermost point in space and time: beginning and end, the point of a weapon or tool, a corner or edge, a quarter of the sky, and also a place.[5][12] From “corner, end” the word came to mean “part of space, place”, already in Middle High German, and it was paired with Stelle in an Ort und Stelle.[3][4] It then became the general word for a town or village.[3][13]

The old sense “point” survives regionally in Ort “awl”, and “end, corner” in place names such as Ruhrort and Darßer Ort.[5][13] Miners used Ort for the end of a gallery, where the work is done; from there vor Ort came to mean “on the spot”, especially in journalism.[3][13] The diminutive Örtchen became a euphemism for the toilet, in the 17th century according to Pfeifer and the Duden and in the 19th according to Paul; plain Ort had occasionally been used so in the 15th century.[5][13][3] The mining word was borrowed into Polish as ort in 1564 and into Russian as орт (ort) in 1735.[14]

Timeline

  • Last quarter of the 8th century – Old High German ort appears in glosses and the Hildebrandslied.[10]
  • Around 1000 – ortōn “to give corners to, bound” is recorded.[5]
  • 15th century – Ort is used for the privy.[5]
  • 1544 – Hungarian borrows ort “quarter of a measure or coin”.[14]
  • 16th century – The miners' verb orten “to meet at an acute angle” appears.[5]
  • 1564 – Polish ort “mining gallery” is recorded.[14]
  • 17th century – Örtchen is used for the toilet.[5][13]
  • 1727 – örtlich “local” is recorded.[3]
  • 18th century – Ortschaft “village, locality” appears.[5]
  • 20th century – orten “to determine the position of” appears.[5][13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A place, spot or location where someone or something is or where something happens: am Ort des Unfalls.[15][1]
  2. A particular place within a room or building: ein ruhiger Ort zum Lesen.[15]
  3. A village, small town or locality: in einem kleinen Ort an der Küste wohnen.[15][1]
  4. The inhabitants of such a place: der ganze Ort feierte.[15][1]
  5. (mathematics, astronomy; plural Örter) A locus, or the position of a star.[15][16]
  6. (Switzerland, historical) A canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy.[15][1]
  7. (mining; neuter, plural Örter) The end of a gallery, the working face.[1][3]
  8. (dated or regional) An awl.[1][5]

Word family

  • örtlich
  • Örtlichkeit
  • orten
  • Ortung
  • Ortschaft
  • Örtchen
  • erörtern
  • allerorten

Usage notes

Older German also used Ort for a quarter of a coin, and then of a weight or measure, as in Ortstaler and Ortsgulden.[3][1] Paul derives this use from the sense “corner”,[3] while Wiktionary treats it as a separate word, from Middle Low German ort “leftover, fragment”, related to English orts “scraps”.[1] Adelung had already connected the sense “piece” with the Low German Ort for fodder left by cattle.[17]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 1350
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 674
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 1210
  11. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 246
  12. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 169
  13. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  14. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  15. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  16. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  17. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf