Stunde

Forms

Stunde f (genitive Stunde, plural Stunden, diminutive Stündchen n or Stündlein n or Stunderl n)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German stunde, inherited from Old High German stunta, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stundu, inherited from Proto-Germanic *stundō (“period of time, point in time, hour”).^[2][3][1] The same word is Old Saxon stunda, Old Frisian stunde, Old English stund and Old Norse stund, and today Dutch stonde, Swedish stund, Icelandic stund and the dialectal or obsolete English stound.^[2][3][4] It is not recorded in Gothic.^[5][6]

Pfeifer, the Duden and Wahrig derive it, with an irregular ablaut grade, from the nasalised present stem of Proto-Germanic *standaną (“to stand”) (see stehen and Stand), with an original sense “halt, fixed point” in the course of time, then “fixed time, set period”.^[3][7][8] Kluge finds this possible in meaning, comparing Weile and Latin quiēs (“rest”), but doubtful in form: the early derivatives of that family lack the nasal, and a zero grade has no place in their ablaut, so the morphology must be called unexplained.^[2] He gives closer attention to a proposal by H. Meier, who starts from Vulgar Latin *stunda (“short period”), reflected in Sardinian istunda, Catalan estona and Corsican stonda, and derives it from *extundus, an adaptation of rotundus (“round”), so that the first sense would be “a turn”.^[2] The Duden also allows a borrowing from that Vulgar Latin word.^[7] Lithuanian stùndas (“hour”) is a loan from German.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German stunta is recorded from the late 8th century, first in glosses and in the Old High German Isidor, and then in the Monsee fragments, the Murbach hymns, Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram.^[4][9][10] It meant “hour, time, period, moment”, and also “time” in counting (zi stuntōn “now”), forming numeral adverbs.^[10][4] Old Saxon stunda meant “hour, time, while”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German stunde (also stunt) was still a time or point in time of no fixed length: an occasion, a time (as in “three times”), a respite or deadline.^[11][7] Only from about the 15th century did it name the fixed sixtieth-minute division of the 24-hour day marked on the clock;^[3][7][8] Paul quotes die drit stund des tags from 1512 and a day and night of 24 stunden from 1565.^[12] Soon the word also named what filled such an hour: a devotion or meeting in the 16th century, and a lesson from the 18th.^[3][12] It could also measure distance, as in eine stunde weges (1684), an hour's walk.^[12]

Older uses of the vague sense live on in phrases.^[3][12] Von Stund an (15th century) first meant “at once” and then “from then on”;^[3][12] auf die Stunde “immediately” is from the 16th century; and a woman's schwere Stunde, the hour of childbirth, is recorded in 1466.^[3][12] In mining a Stunde was one of the 24 divisions of the compass.^[13][6] The verb stunden “to grant a delay” (17th century) probably came from the Hanseatic language of trade, Middle Low German stunden “to postpone”.^[3][7] German Stunde was borrowed into Latvian as stunda and into Lower Sorbian as štunda,^[1] and Hebrew has shlafshtunde “siesta”.^[14]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German stunta appears in glosses and in Isidor.^[9][4]
• 15th century – Stunde becomes the name of the 60-minute hour.^[3][7]
• 15th century – Von Stund an “at once” is first recorded.^[3]
• 1466 – Ihre schwere Stunde for the hour of childbirth.^[12]
• 1512 – Die drit stund des tags, the third hour of the day.^[12]
• 17th century – The verb stunden “to grant a delay” appears.^[3][7]
• 1684 – Eine stunde weges as a measure of distance.^[12]
• 18th century – Stunde comes to mean “lesson”.^[3][12]
• 1909 – Stundenkilometer is recorded.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An hour, a period of sixty minutes, the 24th part of a day; also as a measure of distance: bis zum Dorf sind es zwei Stunden zu Fuß.^[15][1]
2. (literary) A short period in which something happens: eine stille Stunde am Abend.^[15]
3. A moment, a point in time: zur Stunde (at present), die Stunde der Wahrheit, die Stunde null.^[15][1]
4. A lesson at school;^[15][1] (colloquial) a private lesson: sie nimmt Stunden in Latein.^[15][1]
5. (mining, dated) One of the 24 divisions of the compass, a angle of 15 degrees.^[13][6]

Word family

• stündlich
• Stundenhotel
• Stundenkilometer
• stundenlang
• stunden
• Stundung
• Stündchen

Related words

• stehen
• Stand
• English stound

Usage notes

Wissen, was die Stunde geschlagen hat is to know how things really stand, and ein Mann der ersten Stunde is someone who was involved from the very beginning.^[15] Jemandes letzte Stunde hat geschlagen (also with the diminutive Stündlein) means that someone's end has come.^[15][12]

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. 895
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 8, 1311
5. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 20, 487
6. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 837
8. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 318
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
13. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
14. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
15. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag