Etymologically
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Prozess

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Pronunciation

  • /pʁoˈt͡sɛs/[1]

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
  • 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