Prozess

Forms

Prozess m (genitive Prozesses, plural Prozesse)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German process (“decree, judicial decision”), borrowed from Medieval Latin processus (“lawsuit”), from Latin prōcessus (“advance, progress”), the noun of prōcēdō (“to go forward”).^[2][3][4] The verb is formed with prō- (“forward”) from cēdō (“to go”).^[2][5] Dutch proces, English process and French procès go back to the same Latin word.^[2] From the same verb come Prozedur and Prozession.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Late Middle High German process is recorded from 1410, meaning a decree or a court decision.^[6][2][7] In the Middle Ages the word was a term for legal proceedings, especially in the church courts.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From legal proceedings the meaning widened to “way of proceeding, method”.^[2] This came to mean the procedure for preparing medicinal tinctures.^[2] This gave the chemists' notion of a Prozess, which philosophy then took over, where it means any course of development.^[2] Today the general sense “process, course” stands beside “lawsuit, trial”.^[4][1] The verb prozessieren “to go to law” belongs to the legal sense.^[2] In computing, Prozess names a running program.^[7]

Timeline

• 14th century – The word is borrowed from Medieval Latin.^[2][7]
• 1410 – First dated record of process “decree, court decision”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lawsuit or trial: einen Prozess gewinnen;^[4][1] jemandem den Prozess machen, to put someone on trial;^[4][1] kurzen Prozess machen, to make short work of something.^[4][1]
2. A process, a development that takes place over time: ein chemischer Prozess.^[4][1]
3. (computing) A running program.^[7]

Word family

• prozessieren
• prozessual
• Strafprozess
• Zivilprozessordnung
• Prozessor

Related words

• Internationalprozessrecht
• Prozessablauf
• Prozessbeobachter
• Prozedur
• Prozession
• Abszess
• Exzess
• Rezession

Usage notes

Older spellings are Proceß, Process and Prozeß.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 728
3. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org