Quelle

Forms

Quelle f (genitive Quelle, plural Quellen)^[1] Beside the feminine there has been a masculine Quell since the 15th century, now mainly poetic.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German quelle, inherited from Old High German quella (“spring”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kwalljā (“spring, well”).^[2][1][4] The same word is Old Saxon quella, Middle Low German quelle and Old English cwylla.^[2][3] It is a noun formed from the strong verb quellen, Old High German quellan (“to well up”), which Kluge records from the 10th century.^[2][5][3]

The verb is found elsewhere in Germanic only in the Old English participle collenferhþ (“bold, proud”), properly “swollen-spirited”.^[6][3][5] Pfeifer and the Duden dictionary connect it with Sanskrit गलति (galati, “drips, falls down”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *gu̯el- (“to drip, well up”),^[3][6][1] while Kluge only tentatively compares Ancient Greek βλύζω (blúzō, “I gush forth”).^[5]

The sources disagree on whether the modern noun continues the Old High German one.^[2][6][3] The EWA takes the late Middle High German form as the continuation of the Old High German noun.^[2] The Duden dictionaries point out that it is missing in classical Middle High German and take it to be a new back-formation from the verb in East Central German, from where it spread,^[6][7] and Pfeifer leaves both possibilities open.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German quella is recorded once, in an 11th-century gloss on Prudentius, where the accusative plural quellon translates scatebra (“bubbling spring”), water gushing from rock.^[4][2] The compound brunquella “spring” is older, from the 8th century.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle German a qwelle is recorded in 1440, glossing latex, but the word became common only with Luther, who used it in the Bible for springs and wells.^[8] From the 15th century it was used figuratively for an origin or beginning,^[3] and the Early New High German dictionary also has it for a watering place or well.^[9] The Grimms' dictionary takes the masculine Quell as a later formation from the feminine, with a change of gender.^[8]

In New High German it also came to mean a text used as evidence for research, and a person or place from whom information is obtained directly.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 8th century – The compound brunquella “spring” is recorded.^[5]
• 11th century – Old High German quella glosses Latin scatebra in a manuscript of Prudentius.^[4][2]
• 15th century – The masculine quell and the figurative sense “origin” appear.^[2][3]
• 1440 – Middle German qwelle is recorded in a glossary.^[8]
• 16th century – The word becomes common through Luther's Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spring: water coming out of the ground, the source of a stream or river: eine heiße Quelle.^[7][1]
2. A well from which oil or gas is obtained.^[1]
3. A source, origin of something: eine Quelle der Freude.^[7][1]
4. A source text: a document or text used as evidence in research: historische Quellen auswerten.^[7][10]
5. A person or place from whom information is obtained directly: aus sicherer Quelle wissen.^[7][10]
6. (physics) A point from which a vector field flows out, the opposite of a Senke.^[10]

Word family

• Quell
• Quellcode
• Quellwasser
• Quellenangabe
• Quellenkritik
• Quellensteuer

Related words

• quellen
• Qualle
• Qualm

Usage notes

Aus erster Quelle is “at first hand”;^[7] an der Quelle sitzen (colloquial) is to have good connections and get things on favourable terms.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 44
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c 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, 491
5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 738
6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 665
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ 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, 2342
9. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
10. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org