Saison

Forms

Saison f (genitive Saison, plural Saisons or Saisonen)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French saison (“season, time of year; suitable time”), borrowed in the later 17th century.^[2][3][4] The French word probably comes from Latin satiō (“sowing, planting”), from serō (“to sow, plant”), which in Vulgar Latin must have come to mean “time of sowing”.^[3][4][5] Kluge derives it instead from a colloquial variant of statiō (“position (of the sun)”), mixed with the noun for sowing.^[2] The Latin verb is related to German säen.^[3][5]

The same French word is behind English season and Dutch seizoen.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch first records the word in 1674, in the general sense “(good, right) time, season”.^[4][6] It was used especially of farming, trade and travel, and of the right time for visiting spas.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the season at spas and the summer or winter season of the travelling theatres the word was extended to many areas of cultural and business life, meaning “peak period, main business time”.^[4] French phrases such as saison morte “the slack summer season” were also used.^[4] It forms many compounds, such as Hochsaison, Nachsaison, Badesaison, Spargelsaison and Saisonarbeiter.^[3][6] The adjective saisonal (recorded 1937) was probably influenced by English seasonal.^[6][5] Hungarian borrowed the word as szezon (1840).^[7]

Timeline

• 1674 – First record in German.^[4][6]
• 1698 – A letter speaks of die Saison der Zeit “the season of the year”.^[4]
• 1840 – Hungarian szezon is recorded.^[7]
• 1937 – The adjective saisonal is recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The most important period of the year for something, when it is most available or most frequent or most active: the season for asparagus, for skiing, or the main holiday season.^[8][1]
2. The current period with regard to what is new, for example in fashion.^[9][8]
3. In the theatre and in sport, the playing season.^[8][4]

Word family

• saisonal
• Hochsaison
• Nachsaison
• Vorsaison
• Saisonarbeiter

Related words

• säen
• Station

Usage notes

Saison haben (colloquial) is to be in great demand.^[8] Besides Saisons, southern German and Austrian use the plural Saisonen.^[8][9]

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. 782
3. ^ a b c d 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 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. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 714
6. ^ a b c d e 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 Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
8. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag