Etymologically
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Stelle

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃtɛlə/[1]

Forms

Stelle f (genitive Stelle, plural Stellen)[1] Middle High German and early New High German also had weak singular forms.[2] A neuter Stell, Gestell “frame, place” lived on in regional use.[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation of Early New High German from stellen (“to put, place”), originally “the place where something stands”, and replaced Middle High German stal (“place, standing”) in this sense.[3][4][1][5] The Grimms' dictionary takes it rather as a noun with a j-suffix formed from Stall, like Bürste beside Borste, though it allows a derivation from the verb as Wilmanns proposed.[2] It is found earlier in compounds: Old High German heristelli (“site of an army camp”), recorded in 797, and Middle High German himelstelle (“seat in heaven”).[2][3] The word is limited to German, Low German and Low Franconian, and Danish stel and Swedish ställ are borrowed from German.[2]

The verb is Old High German stellen, from the 8th century, formed from Proto-Germanic *stalla- (“standing place”), the noun that became Stall, so first “to put in its place”.[5][3][6] Kluge and the EWA also allow a causative of a root *stel-, which is otherwise unattested in Germanic.[5][6] Kroonen derives the noun from Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), with an instrumental suffix, matching Latin stabulum (“stable”), while Duden sees in that root an extension of the root for “stand”, with Ancient Greek στέλλω (stéllō, “to set up, send”) and Old Latin stlocus, the earlier form of locus (“place”).[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German stelle appears only now and then, in poets of the 13th and 14th centuries.[2] The oldest examples are concrete, “frame, stand”, and the abstract “place” is recorded in High German only from the 15th century.[2] The Early New High German dictionary lists among the early senses a frame or wagon body, a church pew and a shelf, a terraced vineyard, a place, a position or office, and a pen for cattle.[9]

Semantic evolution

From the 16th century the word spread widely in the written language, taking over many uses of Stall and Statt.[2][3] Its senses today run from a place or spot, a passage in a text, and a rank in an order, to a job and an office.[3][4] The compound Stellvertreter “deputy” dates from the 17th century.[3]

The word was borrowed into Yiddish as שטעלע (shtele) and into Serbo-Croatian as štela.[1]

Timeline

  • 797 – Old High German heristelli “camp site”.[2]
  • 13th–14th century – Middle High German stelle in a few poets.[2]
  • 15th century – First use as abstract “place” in High German.[2]
  • 16th century – Broader use in the written language.[3][2]
  • 17th century – Stellvertreter “deputy”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A place, spot, point where someone or something is or something happens: an dieser Stelle stand früher eine Mühle.[4][1]
  2. A spot on a surface: eine kahle Stelle im Rasen.[1][4]
  3. A passage in a text or piece of music: eine Stelle aus dem Roman vorlesen.[4][1]
  4. A point in a speech or argument: an dieser Stelle sei erwähnt, dass ….[4][1]
  5. A place in a ranking or order: an erster Stelle stehen.[4][1]
  6. (mathematics) A digit position, a decimal place: die zweite Stelle nach dem Komma.[4][1]
  7. A job, post: sie sucht eine neue Stelle.[4][1]
  8. Short for Dienststelle: an office, authority: sich an die zuständige Stelle wenden.[4][1]

Word family

  • anstelle
  • Stellvertreter
  • Dienststelle
  • Stellenangebot
  • Stellenausschreibung

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include auf der Stelle “at once”, auf der Stelle treten “to make no progress”, zur Stelle sein “to be on hand”, an Ort und Stelle “on the spot” and an jemandes Stelle “in someone's place”, from which anstelle is formed.[4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 18, 2172
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 881
  6. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 8, 1038
  7. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  9. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de