Standort

Forms

Standort m (genitive Standortes or Standorts, plural Standorte)^[1]

Etymology

It is from German Stand + Ort, first recorded in the 17th century.^[2][3][1] Stand (Middle High German stant (“standing, place of standing”)) is the action noun of the present stem seen in Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (standan), Old English standan and Old High German stantan, a nasal present beside stehen.^[4][2] Ort (ort, ort, from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz) first meant “point”, especially of a weapon, then “extreme end” and so “place”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Grimms' first record is from Butschky's chancery handbook of 1659, in a description of bills of exchange, where two of the four parties belong to the Standort, the place where the bill is issued.^[3] Adelung was the first to enter it in a dictionary, as the place where one stands, especially with regard to what one does from there or to one's relation to other things.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word became frequent from Justus Möser on, for the place where someone stands, an observer's post or a hunter's stand.^[3] Authors of the 18th century, among them Lessing and Bürger, also used it figuratively for a point of view, where modern German uses only Standpunkt.^[3] Later it came to mean the garrison of a military unit and the location of an economic activity.^[7]

Timeline

• 1659 – Standort appears in Butschky's chancery handbook.^[3]
• 18th century – Lessing and Bürger use it figuratively for a point of view.^[3]
• 1793 – Adelung enters the word in his dictionary.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The place where someone or something stands or is located, also the habitat a plant needs: Von unserem Standort aus sah man den ganzen See.^[7][1]
2. (figurative) A position or standpoint, as in politics.^[7][1]
3. (military) A garrison, the place where units and installations are permanently stationed.^[7]
4. (economics) The location from which a company or other economic activity operates, a base: Das Unternehmen will den Standort Leipzig ausbauen.^[7][1]

Word family

• Standortfaktor

Related words

• Stand
• Ort
• Standpunkt

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
3. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 17, 780
4. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 876
5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 674
6. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 291
7. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag