Region

Forms

Region f (genitive Region, plural Regionen)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin regiō (“direction, line; area, district”), borrowed in the second half of the 15th century.^[2][3][4] The Latin noun is derived from regō (“to direct, guide”), in the sense “to mark out boundaries”, and so belongs with regieren.^[2][3][5] The same Latin word is the source of English region, French région and Swedish region.^[2] The Latin form ⟨Regio⟩ is still occasionally used in German, also in Latin phrases.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1478, uses the word for a layer of the air or a sphere of the heavens: Icarus flies ever higher until he touches “die fürin region und spere der himeln” (“the fiery region and sphere of the heavens”).^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

From its first sense of a zone of the air or of the sky the word passed to regions of the earth, and in particular to the area where certain plants and animals live, as in Schneeregion and Waldregion.^[4] From the early 16th century medicine used it for a part or zone of the body, as in Herzregion.^[4][6]

At the end of the 18th century it was transferred to the mind and society, for a sphere or a social circle: Goethe wrote in 1783 of “jenen höhern Regionen der Menschheit” (“those higher regions of mankind”).^[6][4] From the early 19th century it has been used in politics and economics for an area forming a unit, which is its main use today.^[6][4] The adjective regional is dated by Pfeifer to the end of the 19th century and by Paul to 1918, under the influence of Late Latin regionalis.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 1478 – First record, for a sphere of the heavens.^[4]
• Early 16th century – The word is used in medicine for a zone of the body.^[4]
• 1783 – Goethe uses it for a sphere of the mind.^[6]
• 1822 – First record in the political and geographical sense.^[6]
• 1918 – regional is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A region, a larger area marked by particular features such as climate or economy.^[7][1]
2. (formal) A sphere, a field or realm: Die Mathematik war für ihn eine fremde Region.^[7][4]
3. (anatomy) A region or section of the body or of an organ.^[7][8]

Word family

• regional

Related words

• regieren
• English region

Usage notes

In höheren Regionen schweben (humorous) is to have one's head in the clouds and lose touch with reality.^[7][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 754
3. ^ a b c 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 e f g h i j k Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 682
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag