Etymologically
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Team

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Pronunciation

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

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