Straße

Forms

Straße f (genitive Straße, plural Straßen, diminutive Sträßchen n or Sträßlein n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German strāze, inherited from Old High German strāza, borrowed from Late Latin strāta (“paved road”), from Latin via strāta (“paved way”), originally a military road.^[2][3][4] strāta is the feminine past participle of sternō (“to spread out, strew, level”), in the sense “to pave a road with stones”; the verb is related to streuen.^[4][5] The borrowing was early and common to West Germanic, *strātu: the same word is Old Saxon strāta, Old Frisian strēte and Old English strǣt, and today Dutch straat and English street.^[2][3][1] The Latin word also lives on in Romance, as Italian strada and Spanish estrada.^[4]

The sense “strait, narrow sea” has a separate source.^[2][1] Kluge calls it a mistranslation of English strait, and Paul dates “Straße von Gibraltar” to 1675 after the English name.^[2][6] Wiktionary instead sees it as a calque of Middle Low German strâte, which matched Middle English streit, from Old French estreit (“narrow”), with the native word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German strāza is first recorded in glosses of the third quarter of the 8th century, and then in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “street, road, way, path”.^[7][8] In Old High German it was also used of the path of the heavenly bodies.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Paul explains that the word first meant a built, paved road outside the towns, and then, first in northern Germany, a way inside a town;^[6] Middle High German already distinguished it from the narrower Gasse, as in the formula in gazzen unde in strâzen “everywhere” in Gottfried von Straßburg.^[6] Adelung, around 1800, still described a Straße as a wide lane in a town, as against a narrow Gasse.^[9]

Auf der Straße came to mean “outdoors, in public”, and jemanden auf die Straße setzen “to throw someone out” is recorded in Middle Low German in 1443.^[6] From the 18th century the word also names the people living in a street.^[6] Today auf die Straße gehen also means “to demonstrate”, and compounds such as Straßenjunge acquired a sense of neglect.^[6][10] Middle Low German used it for a waterway in 1427.^[6]

Timeline

• 3rd quarter of the 8th century – Old High German strāza appears in glosses.^[7]
• 1060–1065 – Middle High German strāze is used by Williram.^[11]
• 1427 – Middle Low German uses the word for a waterway.^[6]
• 1443 – jemanden auf die Straße setzen is recorded in Middle Low German.^[6]
• 1675 – Straße von Gibraltar is recorded.^[6]
• 18th century – The word is used for the residents of a street.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A paved road or street for vehicles and pedestrians, in a town usually with a carriageway and two pavements: eine breite Straße überqueren.^[10][1]
2. The people who live in a street: die ganze Straße feierte mit.^[10]
3. A strait: die Straße von Messina.^[10][1]
4. (poker) A straight.^[1][12]

Word family

• Landstraße
• Heerstraße
• Milchstraße
• Straßenbahn
• Straßenkampf
• Straßenverkehr
• Sträßchen

Related words

• streuen
• English street

Usage notes

Auf der Straße stehen or sitzen is colloquial for “to be out of work” or “to be homeless”, and auf die Straße gehen for “to demonstrate”.^[10] Der Mann auf der Straße is the ordinary citizen.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 890
3. ^ a b 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. 829
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 316
9. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
10. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org