Etymologically
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Produkt

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Pronunciation

  • [pʁoˈdʊkt][1]

Forms

Produkt n (genitive Produktes or Produkts, plural Produkte)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin prōductum (“something brought forth”), the neuter past participle of prōdūcō (“to lead forth, extend; to bring forth”) used as a noun.[2][3][4] The Latin verb is formed from prō- (“forward”) and dūcō (“to lead, draw”).[5][2] Kluge treats the noun of the verb produzieren and holds that its economic sense depends on English.[5] Many German loanwords belong to the same Latin verb, among them reduzieren, Viadukt and Dusche, and Kluge relates it to the native ziehen.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Produkt is first recorded in 1489 as a term of mathematics, the result of a multiplication; in the 16th century it was also used for the result of a division.[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century the word was generalised, at first in the merchants' language: Adelung (1777) defines it as the fruits or goods of a country as the first owner wins them from nature, hence Naturprodukt.[3][2] It was then applied to the result of human work and thought, as in Schiller's statement that beauty is the product of the harmony between mind and senses.[3][2] The sense “industrial product” dates from the 19th century, with compounds such as Industrieprodukt, Nebenprodukt and Abfallprodukt.[2][3] In printing a Produkt is the part of a newspaper printed in one run.[6][7]

English mathematics took over inner product (1909) and outer product (1929) as translations of the German terms.[8]

Timeline

  • 1489 – Produkt is used in mathematics for the result of a multiplication.[3]
  • 16th century – Produkt is also used for the result of a division;[2][3] Produzent is recorded in 1559.[2][3]
  • 17th century – produzieren is borrowed.[5]
  • 18th century – Produkt comes to mean a natural product and the result of human work.[2][3]
  • 19th century – The sense “industrial product” appears.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A product, something made by human work, especially from particular materials: Der Hof verkauft seine Produkte direkt an die Kunden.[6][1]
  2. A result or consequence: Die Geschichte ist ein Produkt seiner Fantasie.[6][7]
  3. (mathematics) The result of a multiplication, or an expression whose terms are joined by the sign for multiplication.[6][1]
  4. (printing) The part of a newspaper or magazine printed in one run.[6][7]

Word family

  • Naturprodukt
  • Nebenprodukt
  • Produktion
  • Produzent
  • produktiv
  • produzieren
  • reduzieren
  • English product

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 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. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 724
  6. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ a b c Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de