Spaß

Forms

Spaß m (genitive Spaßes, plural Späße, diminutive Späßchen n or Späßlein n)^[1] Also written Spass, and pronounced /ʃpas/ in some regions.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian spasso (“amusement, pastime”), recorded first in the 16th century in the unadapted form Spasso and in its present form from the 17th.^[2][3][4] The Italian noun is formed from spassare (“to divert, entertain”), which presupposes Vulgar Latin *expassō, an intensive of Latin expandō (“to spread out”); the sense was “to while away the time”.^[2][3] The Latin verb is built from ex- (“out”) and pandō (“to stretch out, spread”).^[4][5] The same word is Danish spas and Norwegian spas, and the Latin source is shared with passieren.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul dates the borrowing to about 1600.^[6] In the 17th century Stieler records seinen Spaß haben “to have one's fun” and es ist nur ein Spaß “it is only a joke”, so both main senses, amusement and jest, are present from the start.^[6]

Semantic evolution

As the opposite of Ernst “seriousness” the word meant a joke, as in zum Spaß recorded by Kramer and Spaß treiben by Adelung, and also teasing, as in seinen Spaß mit jemandem treiben in Campe.^[6] Litotes such as das ist kein Spaß mark something serious or unpleasant, and in the colloquial was kostet der Spaß? the word stands ironically for any costly undertaking.^[6][1] Goethe wrote Das Leben ist ein schlechter Spaß “life is a poor joke”.^[6]

At the end of the 20th century, probably under the influence of American English fun, the sense “pleasure, amusement” spread widely as the goal of a way of life, criticised by sociologists, and gave compounds such as Spaßgesellschaft “fun society”, found in 1993.^[6] Among the derivatives Spaßvogel dates from 1683, spaßen from the 18th century and spaßig from the early 18th, with an older spaßicht of the 17th.^[6][3] The word passed into West Slavic and Slovene: Czech špás, Slovene špas and Silesian szpas “joke”.^[1][7]

Timeline

• 16th century – First record in the Italian form Spasso.^[3][4]
• c. 1600 – Paul's date for the borrowing.^[6]
• 17th century – The form Spaß becomes established.^[2][3]
• 1683 – First record of Spaßvogel.^[6]
• Early 18th century – First record of spaßig.^[3]
• 18th century – First record of spaßen.^[3]
• 1993 – Spaßgesellschaft appears in a newspaper.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A joke or prank, something said or done to make people laugh: Sie erzählte die Geschichte nur zum Spaß. Fixed phrases: Spaß beiseite “joking aside”, keinen Spaß verstehen “to have no sense of humour”, Spaß muss sein.^[5][1]
2. (no plural) fun, enjoyment taken in an activity: Das Klettern macht den Kindern großen Spaß. Viel Spaß!^[5][1]
3. (colloquial, ironic) A costly undertaking or transaction: Der Spaß hat uns dreihundert Euro gekostet.^[5][1]

Word family

• spaßen
• spaßig
• Spaßvogel
• Spaßmacher
• Spaßbremse
• bespaßen

Related words

• passieren

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 862
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 797
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de