Recht

Forms

Recht n (genitive Rechtes or Rechts, plural Rechte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German reht, inherited from Old High German reht, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *reht, inherited from Proto-Germanic *rehtą (“right, privilege”), the neuter of the adjective recht used as a noun.^[2][3][1] It is matched by Old Saxon reht, Old English riht (modern English right), Old Frisian riucht and Dutch recht.^[2][3] The Grimms note that this neuter noun is found only in West Germanic: there is no Gothic equivalent.^[4]

Beside it stands an independent noun of the same root, Proto-Germanic *rehtu-, continued in Old Norse réttr (“law, legal claim”) (masculine) and Old Irish recht (“law, order”).^[2][3] Wiktionary adds that Celtic legal vocabulary may have influenced the Germanic noun.^[1] The adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten, direct”) (see the adjective's entry).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German reht is recorded from the 8th century.^[2][3] In Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and other texts it meant “right, justice, law, commandment, duty”, also “true faith, truth”, in phrases such as mit rehte “rightly” and reht sprechan “to judge”.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The Grimms see in Recht at first a person's fixed place in a divinely ordered society, with the duties and claims that went with it, and then the norm on which that order rests.^[4] The Sachsenspiegel says nieman enmag erwerben ander recht, wen als im angeborn ist (“no one can acquire a status other than the one he was born to”).^[4] In Middle High German reht also meant a law book, a court, a trial and a verdict.^[3]

Wahrig describes the development as going from “what is right” through “claim” to “law”.^[7] The abstract sense “law, legal order” is the main modern one, with Rechte in the plural as the old name for the study of law;^[8][3] Rechtswissenschaft dates from the end of the 18th century.^[8][3] English took some German legal terms in -recht as loan translations, such as fist-law (1831) and father right (1899).^[9]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German reht is recorded.^[2][3]
• c. 1000 – the verb rehtōn “to do justice to” (modern rechten) appears.^[3]
• Late 18th century – Rechtswissenschaft is formed.^[3]
• 1831 – English fist-law is recorded as a loan translation.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Law: the body of rules set or recognised by a state: das deutsche Recht, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßen.^[8][1]
2. (dated, plural) Law as a subject of study, Jura: Sie studierte die Rechte in Leipzig.^[8]
3. A right, an entitlement or claim: das Recht auf Bildung, Wir haben ein Recht darauf.^[8][1]
4. Justice, the state of being in the right: im Recht sein, mit Recht “rightly”, Recht haben “to be right”.^[8]
5. (obsolete) A court of law; a judgement.^[8]

Word family

• rechtlich
• rechten
• rechtens
• Unrecht
• Rechthaber
• Rechtsanwalt
• Rechtswissenschaft
• Faustrecht
• rechtskräftig

Related words

• recht
• richten
• Gericht
• English right

Usage notes

Recht in recht haben, jemandem recht geben is often written small, which Paul takes as a sign that speakers no longer feel it as a noun.^[10] Recht muss Recht bleiben goes back to Psalm 94:15, and Recht sprechen means “to pass judgement”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 751
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 364
5. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 256
7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
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. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer