Regel

Forms

Regel f (genitive Regel, plural Regeln)^[1] Beside Regel the older language had the learned form Regul, still used in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of Latin and of regulieren.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German regel(e), inherited from Old High German regula, borrowed from Medieval Latin regula (“monastic rule”), borrowed first as a word of monastic life.^[4][3][5] The source is Latin rēgula (“straight stick, ruler, standard, rule”), from regō (“to make straight, direct, rule”).^[4][3] Kluge notes that its vowel had already been shortened in Medieval Latin, and Pfeifer infers a short vowel from the Germanic borrowings.^[4][3] Old English regol, Old Norse regla and Dutch regel are the same borrowing, and so is English rule.^[4][3]

Old High German rigil (“bar, bolt”), now Riegel, was borrowed separately, from a Vulgar Latin form of the same word meaning “lath, bar”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German regula is recorded about 800 in the Benedictine Rule and then in Otfrid and in glosses from the 11th century, meaning a monastic rule, a rule or guideline, and also a verse form.^[7][6][8]

Semantic evolution

From the rule of a monastic order the word passed to rules and norms in general;^[9][2] Luther kept it for the teachings of Jesus.^[9][2] The other senses of the Latin word were gradually taken over.^[5] Adelung (1793) still records the sense “ruler”, for drawing straight lines, in some kinds of popular speech.^[10] The colloquial sense “menstruation”, after its regular recurrence, is recorded from 1829, and in der Regel “usually” is found in Schiller.^[9][3]

The verb regeln is dated by the Duden dictionary to the 16th century and by Pfeifer and Paul to the later 18th century.^[5][3][9] regelmäßig appears in the 17th century and regelrecht at the beginning of the 18th.^[5][3]

Timeline

• c. 800 – Old High German regula appears in the translation of the Benedictine Rule.^[7]
• 2nd half of the 17th century – regelmäßig “according to rules” is recorded.^[3]
• Early 18th century – regelrecht is recorded.^[3][5]
• 2nd half of the 18th century – The verb regeln becomes current.^[3]
• 1829 – First record of the sense “menstruation”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rule, a norm or regulation valid for a particular area: die Regeln des Schachspiels.^[11][1]
2. (without plural) The usual practice, the norm: Das ist bei uns die Regel.^[11][1]
3. menstruation, a woman's period.^[11][1]

Word family

• regeln
• Regler
• Regelung
• regelmäßig
• regelrecht

Related words

• regulieren
• regulär
• Riegel
• regieren
• English rule

Usage notes

Keine Regel ohne Ausnahme “no rule without an exception” is a saying found in Grabbe.^[9][11] Die goldene Regel is the precept of Matthew 7:12, nach allen Regeln der Kunst means “properly, by the book” or colloquially “thoroughly”, and in der Regel or in aller Regel means “as a rule”.^[11][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 496
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 d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 753
5. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 681
6. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 281
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 256
9. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 1020
11. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag