Pfarrer

Forms

Pfarrer m (genitive Pfarrers, plural Pfarrer, feminine Pfarrerin)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German pharrære, inherited from Old High German pharrāri, an agent noun from Old High German pharra (“parish”) + -āri, from Pfarre “parish”;^[2][3][1] Kluge glosses it as “the one belonging to the parish”.^[4]

The origin of the noun for the parish is disputed.^[4][2] Pfeifer and the EWA take it as from Ecclesiastical Latin parochia (“diocese; parish”), an older paroecia, borrowed into the Church language of southern Germany before the High German consonant shift, which turned its /p/ into /pf/.^[2][5] The Latin word was shortened, as Old High German zol (“toll”) was from Medieval Latin toloneum, and the short form is found otherwise only in Middle Low German parre and Middle Dutch parre, while the full form gave Dutch parochie and, through Anglo-Norman, English parish.^[5] The Latin word comes from Ancient Greek παροικία (paroikía, “a sojourning in a foreign land”), from πάροικος (pároikos, “dwelling beside; resident alien”), formed from παρά (pará, “beside”) and οἶκος (oîkos, “house”): the early Christians called themselves strangers on earth, their true home being in heaven.^[2][6]

Kluge and Duden doubt the direct borrowing: they suggest a word related to Pferch and its source Medieval Latin parricus (“enclosure”), perhaps influenced by the Latin word for the parish.^[4][7] Duden explains this as the fenced place in which the priest tends the people entrusted to him like sheep.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German pharra is recorded from the third quarter of the 8th century, meaning “diocese, district of a bishop”.^[5][6][8] pharrāri appears only in glosses, in a 12th-century manuscript.^[2][9][10]

Semantic evolution

The parish word moved from the bishop's district to the area, office and church of a priest in Middle High German and early New High German.^[5] A Pfarrer is the clergyman in charge of a parish; in the Protestant church the word is used in the same way as Prediger or Pastor.^[11] Adelung (1793) records Pfarrerinn for the pastor's wife, Herr Pfarrer as a respectful form of address in Upper Germany, and notes that the Latin Pastor was more usual in Upper and Lower Saxony.^[12] A proverb quoted by Simrock says that the merriest students make the best pastors.^[11]

The word passed into neighbouring languages: Slovene has far and farar, the Polish of Teschen farorz and Lower Sorbian faraŕ.^[13][1]

Timeline

• Third quarter of the 8th century – Old High German pharra “diocese” appears in glosses.^[6][5]
• 12th century – pharrāri is recorded in a manuscript of glosses.^[2][9]
• 1515 – The Eulenspiegel book tells how Eulenspiegel hired himself out to a pfarrer.^[11]
• 17th century – The noun Pfarrei appears.^[2]
• 1793 – Adelung records Pfarrerinn “the pastor's wife”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A clergyman in charge of a parish or congregation of a Christian church; a pastor or parish priest: Der neue Pfarrer predigt zum ersten Mal.^[3][1]

Word family

• Pfarrerin

Related words

• Pfarre
• Pfarrei
• Pfarrherr
• English parish

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 696
5. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 1375
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 241
9. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 249
11. ^ 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. 13, 1621
12. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 711
13. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de