Sinn

Forms

Sinn m (genitive Sinnes or Sinns, plural Sinne)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German sin, inherited from Old High German sin, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sinn.^[2][3][1] The word is limited to German, Dutch and Frisian: Middle Low German sin, Middle Dutch sin, Old Frisian sin and Dutch zin;^[2][4] the Scandinavian words are probably borrowed from German.^[4]

Kluge finds the etymology unclear.^[2] The noun stands beside the strong verb Old High German sinnan (“to travel, go, strive after”), also Old Frisian sinna and Old English sinnan, but the sense “sense, mind” is recorded earlier than a development from “strive after” would lead one to expect.^[2] Outside Germanic it matches Latin sentiō (“to feel, perceive”) on one side and Old Irish sét (“way”) on the other, and Kluge reckons with a mixing of roots.^[2]

Pfeifer, Duden and the Grimms take it as a verbal noun of sinnen and trace the whole group to Proto-Indo-European *sent- (“to take a direction, go”), with Old High German sind (“journey, way”), Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌸𐍃 (sinþs, “going, time”), Gesinde and senden; the shift from “going” to “perceiving” would have taken place before Germanic, as in Latin.^[5][6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sin is found in glosses from the second quarter of the 9th century, and in Otfrid, Notker, Psalm 138 and Williram.^[3][7] It meant “mind, understanding, reason, intention, meaning”, with phrases such as sin habên zi “to set one's mind on”.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German had bī sinne sīn “to be in one's senses” and von sinnen komen “to lose one's mind”.^[5][9] Seine fünf Sinne haben is recorded from the 15th century, im Sinn haben “to intend” from the early 17th, and Sinn für etwas haben “to have a feeling for something” from the 18th.^[5] In the 17th and 18th centuries the plural was often Sinnen, as in Goethe's Iphigenie: Du hattest mir die Sinnen eingewiegt (“you had lulled my senses”).^[9] Herder speaks of a sechster Sinn, a sixth sense.^[9]

Unsinn, a back-formation from unsinnig, took on its present sense “nonsense” in the 18th century under the influence of English nonsense.^[5][6] The word was borrowed early into the Romance languages, as Italian senno and Old French sen “understanding”.^[4]

Timeline

• 2nd quarter of the 9th century – Old High German sin in glosses.^[3]
• 15th century – seine fünf Sinne haben.^[5]
• Early 17th century – im Sinn haben “to intend”.^[5]
• 18th century – Sinn für etwas haben;^[5] Unsinn takes on the sense “nonsense”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sense, one of the faculties of perception, usually in the plural: die fünf Sinne.^[10][1] Der sechste Sinn is an instinct that foresees things;^[10] nicht bei Sinnen sein is not to be in one's right mind.^[10]
2. (elevated, in the plural) Sexual feeling and desire.^[10]
3. A feeling or understanding for something: Sie hat viel Sinn für Musik.^[10][1]
4. Mind, thoughts, way of thinking.^[10][1]
5. The meaning of a word, text or statement.^[1][11]
6. The point or purpose of an action: Es hat keinen Sinn, jetzt noch zu streiten.^[1][11]

Word family

• sinnig
• sinnlich
• sinnlos
• sinnvoll
• Unsinn
• unsinnig
• Sinnbild
• sinnreich
• Wahnsinn
• Leichtsinn
• Scharfsinn

Related words

• sinnen
• senden
• Gesinde

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 850
3. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 1227
4. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 1103
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 784
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 281
9. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org