Text

Forms

Text m (genitive Textes or Texts, plural Texte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German text, borrowed from Latin textus (“sequence, connection (of speech); literally a weaving, fabric”).^[2][3][4] The Latin noun belongs to texō (“to weave, plait; to join together”);^[2][3][5] in Medieval Latin it also meant the wording of the Gospels and the Scriptures.^[4][6] The Latin verb is related to Ancient Greek τέχνη (tékhnē, “craft, art, skill”) (see Technik) and τέκτων (téktōn, “carpenter, builder”).^[2][5]

The same word is Dutch tekst, English text, French texte, Swedish text and Icelandic texti.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word was borrowed in the middle of the 14th century, in late Middle High German.^[4][5] Köbler's earliest source is the Middle High German paraphrase of the Book of Daniel (about 1331).^[7] The early records concern the wording of the Bible: a paraphrase of Job (before 1350) has Nu wil ich deme texte na (“Now I will follow the text”), and a text of about 1380 asks for Den Text und nit die glos (“the text and not the gloss”).^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

From the Bible the word passed to the original wording of any poem or document, as opposed to a commentary or translation (hence Urtext).^[6][8] It was also used early for the words of a song, “written under the notes and woven in with them”, as Simon Rot's dictionary of 1571 puts it;^[6][8] Mathesius wrote der text ist der noten seele (“the text is the soul of the notes”).^[6][8] From this came the sense of the words accompanying a picture, and in advertising the copy written for it; the verb texten and the noun Texter (writer of advertising copy or song lyrics) date from the middle of the 20th century.^[6][3][5]

Opitz used it for the connected words of a speech or writing, and it came to mean the theme or subject of a talk, a use already found in the Shrovetide plays.^[6] In linguistics Text became a technical term for a coherent sequence of signs with a recognizable communicative function.^[6] The phrase jemandem den Text lesen “to read someone the text” (to lecture someone) comes from the reading of the Bible passage in church.^[6][9] English borrowed Urtext in 1932.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1331 – Middle High German text in the paraphrase of the Book of Daniel.^[7]
• c. 1350 – Borrowing from Latin dated by the Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch.^[4]
• c. 1380 – Den Text und nit die glos.^[6][4]
• 1539 – Georg Forster's song collection discusses the texts of the songs.^[8]
• 1571 – Simon Rot defines it as the words of a song written under the notes.^[6]
• Mid-20th century – texten and Texter appear.^[3]
• 1932 – English borrows Urtext.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A text: a fixed, connected sequence of statements, usually written; the wording of something.^[9][1]
2. A piece of text, an excerpt from a book.^[9]
3. The words, lyrics of a piece of music.^[9][1]
4. A Bible passage taken as the basis of a sermon.^[9][1]
5. A caption to an illustration.^[9]

Word family

• texten
• Texter
• Blindtext
• Fließtext
• Klappentext
• Liedtext
• Songtext
• Textverarbeitung
• Urtext
• Videotext

Related words

• Kontext
• textil
• Technik

Usage notes

Aus dem Text kommen (colloquial) is to lose the thread, and Weiter im Text! (colloquial) means “go on!”.^[9] In printing, die Text (feminine) is a type size of 20 points.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. 915
3. ^ a b c d 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 e f 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
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 21, 294
9. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag