Etymologically
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Täter

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈtɛːtər/, [ˈtɛː.tɐ], [ˈteː.tɐ][1]

Forms

Täter m (genitive Täters, plural Täter, feminine Täterin)[1]

Etymology

It is from German Tat + -er; it first occurs as the second element of compounds such as Middle High German übeltæter (“evildoer”) and missetæter, and became an independent word in the 15th century.[2][3][4] Wiktionary describes it as a back-formation from the older compounds Missetäter, Übeltäter and Wohltäter, like Dutch dader.[1] It is now felt to belong to tun rather than to the noun.[5][3]

The noun is tāt, Old High German tāt, Old Saxon dād, from Proto-Germanic *dēdiz (“deed”), also found in Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌳𐌴𐌸𐍃 (gadeþs), Old Norse dáð and Old English dǣd, whence English deed.[6][2][1] It is an abstract noun in Proto-Indo-European *-tis with ablaut from the root of the verb, *dʰeh₁- (“to put, place”), like Ancient Greek θέσις (thésis, “a placing”) and Lithuanian dė́tis (“load”).[6][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer and the Duden dictionary date the independent noun to the 15th century;[2][3] Middle High German had -tæter only in compounds.[2][3] The Early New High German dictionary gives it two senses, “offender, criminal” and “one who carries out an action”.[7]

Semantic evolution

Until the 19th century Täter could still mean any doer, as in Wohltäter “benefactor” and Wundertäter “miracle worker”, beside “criminal”; the neutral sense is now rare.[8][1] In law and in everyday use it is the person who has committed an offence, and compounds such as Gewalttäter (violent offender) and Wiederholungstäter (repeat offender) name kinds of offender.[5][1] Since 1945 the pairing Täter und Opfer (“perpetrators and victims”) has often referred to the National Socialists and those they persecuted and murdered, and also to members of other totalitarian systems and their victims.[8]

Timeline

  • 765 – Old High German tāt “deed” appears in glosses.[9][6]
  • Middle High German – -tæter occurs in compounds such as übeltæter.[2][3]
  • 15th century – Täter is first used on its own.[2][3][4]
  • 19th century – The general sense “doer” fades.[8]
  • 1945 – Täter und Opfer comes to refer above all to the Nazi era.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A perpetrator, someone who has committed a crime or a wrongful act: Der Täter floh mit einem gestohlenen Fahrrad.[5][1][4]
  2. (rare) A doer, one who does something.[1][8]

Word family

  • Ersttäter
  • Gewalttäter
  • Schreibtischtäter
  • Wiederholungstäter
  • Täterin
  • Missetäter
  • Übeltäter
  • Wohltäter
  • Tat
  • tun
  • tätig
  • tätlich
  • English deed

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 908
  7. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  8. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling