Etymologically
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Rang

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Pronunciation

  • /raŋ/, [ʁaŋ][1]
  • Northern: [ʁaŋk][1]

Forms

Rang m (genitive Ranges or Rangs, plural Ränge)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French rang (“row, order”), borrowed in the 17th century, during the Thirty Years' War.[2][3][4] It comes in turn from Old French renc (“row, line of battle”), which first meant the circle of those summoned to a court and then the rows of spectators at a tournament.[2][3][5] The Old French noun was taken from a Germanic word for “ring”, Frankish *hring, from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring, circle”), so the word is a doublet of the native Ring.[2][5][6][1] Pfeifer explains the sense from the circular formation of an army.[5] English has the same French word as rank.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in soldiers' language in 1665;[4][7] Böckler's Kriegsschule (1668) lists range “a row” among the foreign military terms in use.[4][7] It meant a row or line of soldiers or warships in battle order.[5][7]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century it took on the sense of a degree in the social order, an office or dignity.[5] At the election of the Roman king in 1658 the Brandenburg envoy objected that Rang and Posten were neither Latin nor German, and Stieler complained about the borrowing, but from the end of the 17th century the word counted as naturalised.[7] In the 19th century it came to name the tiers of seats in a theatre, and later the prize classes in the lottery and placings in sport.[5][8][4] The phrase Menschen von Rang und Namen means people of power and influence.[4][8] The word passed into Hungarian (1704), Czech and Slovak.[9]

Timeline

  • 1658 – At the election of the Roman king an envoy objects to Rang as foreign.[7]
  • 1665 – First record, in military language.[4]
  • 18th century – The sense “social rank, dignity” develops.[5]
  • 1704 – Hungarian rang is borrowed from German.[9]
  • 1809 – First record of Rangliste.[4]
  • 19th century – Rang names a tier in a theatre.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Rank, a position in a hierarchy: im Rang eines Majors.[8][1]
  2. Standing, importance or quality: ein Künstler von Rang;[8][1] ersten Ranges, of the first order.[8][1]
  3. A tier or balcony in a theatre; in the plural also the stands of a stadium.[8][1]
  4. A prize class in the lottery or the football pools.[8]
  5. (sports) A place in a ranking or results table.[8][1]

Word family

  • rangieren
  • Rangliste
  • Rangordnung
  • ranghoch
  • Vorrang
  • Ring
  • arrangieren
  • English rank

Usage notes

Jemandem den Rang ablaufen “to outdo someone” originally had nothing to do with this word: it contains Rank “a quick turn”, the bend by which a runner or a hunting dog gains a lead, and was reinterpreted as Rang in the 18th century.[10][6][3] A separate regional Rang “border, slope, bank”, from Middle High German ranc, is found in Franconia, the Upper Palatinate and Alsace.[10][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 744
  3. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  7. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 92
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  9. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  10. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 91
  11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de