Team

Forms

Team n (genitive Teams, plural Teams)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English team, which continues Old English tēam (“offspring, family; team of draught animals”).^[2][3][4] The English word is related to Zaum, so that the German noun is a doublet of the native word.^[2][3][1] The same English word was taken into Dutch team, French team and Swedish team.^[2] The first German record is from 1859, but the word was borrowed in earnest around 1900.^[5][3][6] Kluge dates it to the 20th century, and the Fremdwörterbuch's first quotation is from 1903.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The ZDL's word history finds the first record in 1859, in letters from California written by a German and printed in a magazine.^[5] The Fremdwörterbuch quotes a Football-team der Pennsylvania-Universität from 1903, and an English Team from 1904.^[7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word referred to English and American conditions, mainly in sport, in the sense “pair or group of players, side”.^[3][7][5] As an anglicism it was the target of purist efforts, which failed: it was established from about 1910.^[5] From the 1940s it was transferred to work, meaning a group of specialists working together on a task, and more recently also the staff of a business.^[5][7]

Teamwork was recorded in 1927 for a team's play, later for joint work, and the partial loan translation Teamarbeit followed in 1955.^[6][3] Teamgeist was probably formed after English team spirit.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 1859 – First record, in letters from California.^[5]
• 1903 – Football-team is recorded.^[7]
• About 1910 – The word becomes established in sport.^[5]
• 1927 – Teamwork is recorded.^[6]
• 1940s – The sense “working group” appears.^[5]
• 1955 – Teamarbeit and Teamgeist are recorded.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A group of people who work together on a task: ein Team aus fünf Programmierern.^[8][1]
2. (sports) A side or team of players.^[8][1]
3. The staff of a business.^[1][5]

Word family

• Teamwork
• Teamarbeit
• Teamgeist
• teamfähig
• Teamkollege

Related words

• Zaum
• English team

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 910
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wortgeschichte digital (2020–), Zentrum für digitale Lexikographie der deutschen Sprache (ZDL), Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, zdl.org/wb/wortgeschichten
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
8. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag