Etymologically
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Schaden

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃaː.dən/, /ˈʃaː.dɛn/, /ˈʃaː.dn̩/[1]
  • Germany: /ˈʃaː.dn̩/[1]
  • Austria, Southern-Germany, Switzerland: [-d̥ɛn][1]

Forms

Schaden m (genitive Schadens, plural Schäden)[1] Schade is the older nominative and is still used in fixed phrases such as es soll dein Schade nicht sein.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German schade, inherited from Old High German scado (“harm, harmer”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *skaþō, inherited from Proto-Germanic *skaþô (“damage”).[2][4][1] The same word is Old Saxon skatho, Old Frisian skatha, Old English sceaþa (“one who harms”) and Old Norse skaði, beside the neuter Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌹𐍃 (skaþis, “wrongdoing”).[2][4][5] It is an abstract noun to the strong verb seen in Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌸𐌾𐌰𐌽 (skaþjan, “to harm”) and sceþþan.[2][4][6] Outside Germanic, Kluge compares at most Ancient Greek ἀσκηθής (askēthḗs, “unharmed”) and, further off in meaning, Old Irish scíth (“weary”).[2] Pfeifer allows a root *skēth- “to harm” if these belong here, and Wahrig says the connections cannot be confirmed.[4][7]

The -n of the modern nominative comes from the other cases of the old weak noun.[4][6][3] Used as a predicate, the noun also became the adjective schade “a pity”.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German scado is recorded in glosses from about 765 and in Otfrid, Notker and the Strasbourg Oaths, meaning “evil, ruin, damage, punishment”, and also, as an agent noun, “one who harms, a robber”.[8][9][4] Middle High German schade meant “harm, loss, disadvantage, ruin” and also “wound”.[4][10]

Semantic evolution

Paul distinguishes damage to a thing (Brandschaden, Wasserschaden in Stieler), bodily injury, known since Middle High German (Luther's Schade vmb schade / Auge vmb auge), and financial loss.[11] Schaden has been linked with Spott since Middle High German, in the proverb wer den Schaden hat, braucht für den Spott nicht zu sorgen, and durch Schaden wird man klug is in Kramer.[11][3] Schade sein “to be regrettable” developed in the 16th century from the predicative noun, and the adjective and interjection schade in the 18th.[4]

The compound Schadenfreude (16th century, recorded in 1591) is frequent in Goethe.[4][11] English took it as schadenfreude in 1852.[12] The verb schaden is formed from the noun, and because this is no longer felt, schädigen often takes its place.[6] Czech, Slovak and Slovene borrowed the noun as škoda.[12]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German scado appears in glosses.[8]
  • 8th century – The verb scadōn “to harm” is recorded.[4]
  • 9th century – scadohaft “harmful”, the source of schadhaft.[4]
  • 16th century – schade sein “to be a pity” and Schadenfreude appear.[4]
  • 18th century – schade is used as an adjective and interjection.[4]
  • Late 18th century – Schadenersatz “compensation” is formed.[4]
  • 19th century – Schädling “pest” is recorded.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. harm, detriment: a change for the worse: Schaden anrichten, davon hat er keinen Schaden.[3][1]
  2. damage, a defect: ein Schaden am Dach, Schäden an der Karosserie.[3][13]
  3. An injury: einen Schaden am Knie haben.[3][11]
  4. A financial loss: den Schaden ersetzen.[3][11]
  5. (colloquial) A mental problem: Du hast doch einen Schaden![1]

Word family

  • schaden
  • schade
  • schädigen
  • beschädigen
  • entschädigen
  • schadhaft
  • schädlich
  • schadlos
  • Schädling
  • Schadenfreude
  • Schadenersatz
  • English scathe

Usage notes

Zu Schaden kommen “to be hurt, to suffer” and Schaden nehmen (elevated) are fixed phrases.[3][11] Sich schadlos halten “to make up for one's loss at others' expense” dates from the 18th century; the older jemanden schadlos halten (16th century) meant “to protect from loss”.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 792
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 724
  7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 284
  10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 625
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org