Raum

Forms

Raum m (genitive Raumes or Raums, plural Räume)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German rūm, inherited from Old High German rūm, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *rūm, inherited from Proto-Germanic *rūmą (“room, open space”).^[2][3][1] The noun is a substantivised adjective, *rūmaz (“roomy, spacious”), found in Gothic 𐍂𐌿𐌼𐍃 (rūms), Old Norse rúmr and Old High German rūmi (“wide, far”) (8th century), which lives on in geraum and, extended, in geräumig.^[2][3][4]

The noun itself is 𐍂𐌿𐌼 (rūm), rúm, Old English rūm and Old Saxon rūm; it is neuter in Gothic, Old Norse and Old Saxon and masculine only in High German.^[2][5] The same word is Dutch ruim, English room, Swedish rum and Icelandic rúm.^[2]

Kluge derives the adjective from a root Proto-Indo-European *reu- whose original sense is hard to grasp, attested in Avestan rauuah- (“open space, freedom”), Tocharian B ru- (“to open”), Latin rūs (“country, land”) and Old Church Slavonic равьнъ (ravĭnŭ, “level, equal”).^[2] Pfeifer reconstructs *rēu-, *rū- “wide space; to open”,^[3] and Wiktionary sets up *rewh₁- “to tear open”.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates the noun to the 9th century and the adjective rūmi to the 8th;^[2] Köbler finds rūm “space, interval” in glosses of the 10th century and in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs (1060–1065),^[6][7][8] and Pfeifer gives the 11th century.^[3] Paul takes the original sense to be “the empty, unfilled”.^[9] In Middle High German, with Wolfram and Gottfried's Tristan, it meant room to move freely or to stay in,^[10][3] and also what has to be cleared away, sweepings, a sense kept in Abraum.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Only later did Raum come to mean something extended with definite bounds, whether filled or not, especially a room in a building; the youngest use is the general mathematical and philosophical concept of space.^[9] Early New High German already had the senses “area of land, region”, “capacity of a vessel”, “outer space” and “period of time”.^[11] From the sense “room to move” came “opportunity, scope for something”, as in Luther and Goethe and in the phrase Raum geben “to give way to” (anger, a request); the time sense lives on chiefly in Zeitraum and Zwischenraum.^[9]

The adjective raum “wide, open” survives only in seamen's language, of the open sea and of a wind from abaft the beam.^[3][12] In some Low German writers of the 16th and 17th centuries the noun is neuter, as in the north.^[5] Raumfähre was formed in the second half of the 20th century after English space shuttle.^[4] Modern Hebrew has borrowed Lebensraum.^[13]

Timeline

• 8th century – The adjective rūmi “wide” is recorded.^[2]
• 9th century – First record of the noun.^[2]
• 10th century – rūm glosses Latin words for space.^[6]
• 1060–1065 – Williram uses rūm.^[7]
• 17th century – räumlich and Räumlichkeit appear.^[4]
• Second half of the 20th century – Raumfähre is coined after English space shuttle.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A room: a part of a building enclosed by walls, floor and ceiling, used to live or work in: ein heller, hoher Raum.^[12][1]
2. space extending in length, breadth and height without fixed limits.^[12][14]
3. A space with fixed limits; capacity, volume.^[12][1]
4. (elevated) Room, space available to someone or something; also scope: Raum für Zweifel.^[12][1]
5. Short for Weltraum: outer space.^[12][14]
6. An area or region without exact limits: im Raum Köln.^[14][1]
7. (mathematics) A set with a structure, such as a vector space.^[12][14]

Word family

• räumen
• räumlich
• Räumlichkeit
• geräumig
• Weltraum
• Zeitraum
• Spielraum
• Zwischenraum
• Abraum
• Lebensraum
• Raumfähre
• Raumfahrt
• Raumschiff

Related words

• geraum
• Räumte
• English room

Usage notes

Etwas in den Raum stellen is to put something up for discussion, and something that im Raum steht is a question that has been raised and awaits an answer.^[12] An archaic and dialectal Raum “cream” is a by-form of Rahm, from Middle High German roum, of a separate origin.^[1][15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 749
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 676
5. ^ 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, 275
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 266
9. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 534
11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
14. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
15. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 681
16. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 283