Sache

Forms

Sache f (genitive Sache, plural Sachen, diminutive Sächlein n or Sächelchen n)^[1] The word was declined strong in the older periods; weak plurals such as sachin appear from the 15th century (1442), and Luther still has weak singular forms like in dieser sachen.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German sache, inherited from Old High German sahha, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *saku, inherited from Proto-Germanic *sakō (“lawsuit, dispute, cause”).^[3][1][4] The same word is Old Saxon saka, Old Norse sǫk, Old English sacu and Old Frisian seke, and in the modern languages Dutch zaak, English sake, Swedish sak and Icelandic sök.^[3][5] A variant stem *sakjō is found in Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌾𐍉 (sakjō, “quarrel”), sæcc and secka.^[3][5]

The noun is formed from a strong verb, Proto-Germanic *sakaną (“to dispute at law”), seen in Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌰𐌽 (sakan), sacan, sakan and sahhan (“to go to law, quarrel, scold”), which died out in Middle High German.^[3][4][6] That verb stands in ablaut with suchen.^[3][6] Pfeifer connects the group with Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai, “to lead, believe”) and Latin sāgiō (“to perceive keenly”) under the root Proto-Indo-European *sāg- (“to track by scent”), so that the sense would have passed from “follow a trail” through “pursue a culprit” to “bring a charge in court”.^[5][7]

The present general sense comes from a widening of the legal sense, as with Ding, and with French chose from Latin causa.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sahha is first recorded in glosses of about 765, and then in the Isidor translation, the Monsee fragments, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[7][8] Its senses there already ranged from “matter, thing, possession, state” to “cause, reason” and “charge, guilt”.^[8][7] Old Saxon saka also meant “court, enmity, guilt”, and Middle High German sache was above all “dispute, lawsuit”, then “matter, cause, thing”.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to the old language of the law, and its meaning grew more and more general, like that of Ding.^[5][6] Paul sees the widening to “business, duty” as partly modelled on Latin causa, and dates it to Old High German.^[10] The legal sense is still clear in Sachwalter (late Middle High German), in the formula in Sachen X gegen Y (16th century) and in Richter in eigener Sache (17th century), while the legal sense has faded in gemeinsame Sache machen (18th century), Hauptsache and Ursache.^[5][6]

Pfeifer dates sachlich “objective” to the 17th century, while the Duden dictionary dates it to the first half of the 18th.^[5][6] The art movement Neue Sachlichkeit was named by G. Hartlaub in 1923.^[5] In 1922 English took over Sachverhalt “state of affairs” as a philosophical term,^[11] and some Polish dialects and Kashubian borrowed the word as zacha.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German sahha appears in glosses.^[7]
• 1442 – A weak plural sachin is recorded.^[2]
• 16th century – The formula in Sachen X gegen Y.^[5]
• 17th century – in Sachen “concerning” and sachlich are recorded.^[5]
• 18th century – gemeinsame Sache machen and zur Sache! appear.^[5]
• 19th century – seine sieben Sachen “all one's belongings”.^[5]
• 1922 – English borrows Sachverhalt.^[11]
• 1923 – G. Hartlaub coins Neue Sachlichkeit.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thing or object, mostly in the plural: one's things, goods, belongings: Er hat seine Sachen im Zug liegen lassen.^[12][1]
2. (familiar, plural) clothes: Zieh dir warme Sachen an!^[12]
3. (law) A thing as an object of rights, a piece of property: bewegliche Sachen are movables.^[12][1]
4. A matter, affair or business: Die Sache mit dem Auto ist noch nicht geklärt.^[12][1]
5. (law) A case before a court.^[1][13]
6. A cause one stands up for: für eine gerechte Sache kämpfen.^[1][10]
7. Someone's task or concern: Das ist Sache der Eltern.^[5][10]
8. (colloquial, plural) Kilometres per hour: mit 180 Sachen über die Autobahn.^[1][13]

Word family

• sachlich
• Sachlichkeit
• versachlichen
• sächlich
• Sachverhalt
• Sachwalter
• Sachbearbeiter
• Sachbuch
• Hauptsache
• Nebensache
• Tatsache
• Ursache
• Siebensachen

Related words

• Ding
• Widersacher
• suchen
• English sake

Usage notes

Zur Sache kommen is to come to the point and bei der Sache sein to concentrate on something.^[10] Gemeinsame Sache mit jemandem machen is to join someone in a questionable undertaking, and seine sieben Sachen are all of one's belongings.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1592
3. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 780
4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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 c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 712
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 269
9. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 564
10. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org