Etymologically
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Standort

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Pronunciation

  • [ˈʃtantˌʔɔʁt][1]

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

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