Teil

Forms

Teil m or n (genitive Teiles or Teils, plural Teile): masculine for a part of a whole, masculine or neuter for a share, neuter for a separate piece^[2][1] The older spelling was Theil.^[1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German teil, inherited from Old High German teil, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *daili, inherited from Proto-Germanic *dailiz (“part, share”).^[4][1] The same word is Old Saxon dēl, Old English dǣl, Old Frisian dēl and Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌻𐍃 (dails), and today Dutch deel, English deal and Swedish del.^[4][5][6] Kroonen also sets up a neuter Proto-Germanic *dailą, the source of Old English dāl and English dole.^[7]

Outside Germanic only Old Church Slavonic дѣлъ (dělŭ, “part”) agrees in form, and Kluge notes that it could be a loan from Germanic;^[4] Orel takes the two as identical, and Pfeifer and Kroonen speak of a word shared by Germanic and Balto-Slavic, also seen in Lithuanian dailýti (“to divide”).^[6][5][7] Kluge compares the meaning of dalìs (“part”), without the diphthong, and of Sanskrit दयते (dáyate, “divides”) and Ancient Greek δαίομαι (daíomai, “I divide”), which differ in their initial sound.^[4] Pfeifer considers a root Proto-Indo-European *dā(i)- (“to divide, cut”) or a substrate word;^[5] Kroonen a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), though the formation has no parallels.^[7] The Duden calls the further connections uncertain.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German teil is first recorded in glosses of 765, and then in Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “part, share, piece”, “side” and “region”.^[9][10] It was already used for fractions: tritto teil “third”, ahtodo teil “eighth”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word was masculine and neuter from Old High German on; today the masculine prevails for a part of a whole, while the neuter is used for a separate piece and in compounds such as Erbteil and Hinterteil.^[11] Phrases such as das dritte Teil contracted into the fraction words Drittel and Viertel.^[11] Of people, Teil meant a party in war, treaties or a lawsuit,^[12] whence ich für mein Teil “as for me”.^[11]

The adverbial phrases ein teil and eines teils “partly” were usual until the 15th century, zum Teil from the 16th;^[12] the adverb teils comes from the genitive in the 17th century.^[5] Gegenteil, in Middle High German “the opposing party in a lawsuit”, has had its general sense since the 16th century, and Nachteil was formed in the 15th century as the opposite of Vorteil.^[5] Anteil nehmen “to sympathize” arose in the 18th century.^[5] The word was borrowed into Czech, Slovak and Slovene, as Czech tál “share of land”.^[13]

Timeline

• 765 – Old High German teil appears in glosses.^[9]
• 8th century – The verb teilen is recorded.^[5]
• 10th century – fiorteil “quarter” appears.^[5]
• 15th century – Nachteil is formed beside Vorteil.^[5]
• 16th century – zum Teil replaces eines teils;^[12][5] Gegenteil takes its general sense.^[12][5]
• 17th century – The adverb teils appears.^[5]
• 18th century – Anteil nehmen “to sympathize” arises.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masculine) A part of a whole: der vordere Teil des Zuges.^[2][1]
2. (masculine) A portion or fraction of a larger amount: ein großer Teil der Stadt.^[2][1]
3. (masculine or neuter) A share that someone has or contributes: sein Teil beitragen.^[2]
4. (masculine) A person or group facing another, a party.^[2]
5. (neuter) A single piece, a component of a machine or device.^[2][1]
6. (neuter, colloquial) A thing, an object; a piece of clothing.^[1][14]

Word family

• teilen
• teils
• Abteil
• Anteil
• Gegenteil
• Nachteil
• Vorteil
• Erbteil
• Bestandteil
• Drittel
• Viertel

Related words

• Urteil
• English deal
• English dole

Usage notes

Sich sein Teil denken is to keep one's thoughts to oneself;^[2][11] das bessere Teil erwählt haben “to have chosen the better part” comes from Luke 10:42.^[2][11]

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 h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
3. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 21, 347
4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 911
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 853
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. 330
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c d Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
13. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
14. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org