Etymologically
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Tier

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Pronunciation

  • /tiːr/, [tʰiːɐ̯][1]

Forms

Tier n (genitive Tieres or Tiers, plural Tiere, diminutive Tierchen n or Tierlein n)[1] Older texts spell it Thier, the form under which the Grimms' dictionary lists it.[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German tier, inherited from Old High German tior, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *deuʀ, inherited from Proto-Germanic *deuzą (“wild animal”).[3][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌳𐌹𐌿𐍃 (dius), Old Norse dýr, Old English dēor, Old Frisian diār and Old Saxon dior; English deer has narrowed it to one kind of animal.[3][4][5] It first meant wild animals, as opposed to domestic stock, called Vieh.[3][6]

Most sources take it as “a breathing being”: Pfeifer, Duden and Kluge compare Lithuanian dvė̃sti (“to breathe one's last”), Old Church Slavonic доухъ (duxŭ, “breath, spirit”) and доуша (duša, “soul”) and trace them to Proto-Indo-European *dʰews- (“to blow, breathe”), an extension of the root of Dunst and Duft, just as Latin animal (“animal”) belongs to anima (“breath, soul”).[4][6][3] Kluge also mentions bēstia (“beast”) as the closest in meaning, though its sound development is unclear.[3] Kroonen instead connects it with the Old English adjective of the same form, “wild, bold”, and takes the root to have meant “to lose one's senses”, hence “to be wild”.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German tior is recorded in glosses from about 765, and then in the Murbach Hymns, Notker, the Physiologus and Williram, meaning a wild animal or a living creature.[2][7][3]

Semantic evolution

For a long time, and in dialects still, Tier meant above all a four-footed creature living in the wild;[8][4] Luther still used it so.[8][4] The general sense “animal as opposed to man” is quoted from Brockes.[8] Hunters use it of the female of red deer, as Frisch records, much as English deer has kept the old sense of game.[8][6] Applied to people it is usually contemptuous, but ein großes or hohes Tier “a bigwig” is used with respect, already by Johann Christian Günther, and Campe records ein gutes Tier “a good honest soul”.[8]

Tierkreis “zodiac” renders Latin zodiacus;[4][6][8] Pfeifer and Duden give Middle High German tierkreiz, Paul dates the modern word to Zesen in 1645.[4][6][8] Tiergarten goes back to Old High German tiorgarto (in a 12th-century manuscript), tierisch appears early in the 16th century in place of Middle High German tierlich, and Campe records Tierquälerei in 1810.[4][6][8]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German tior in glosses.[2]
  • 12th century – tiorgarto in a manuscript.[4]
  • Middle High German – tierkreiz “zodiac”.[4][6]
  • Early 16th century – tierisch.[4][6]
  • 1645 – Zesen uses Tierkreis.[8]
  • 1810 – Campe records Tierquälerei.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. An animal, a living being with senses and breathing organs that feeds on other organisms and usually moves freely: Der Igel ist ein nachtaktives Tier.[9][1]
  2. (figurative) A brutal, coarse person;[9][1] ein gutes Tier (slang), a good-natured but simple person.[9][1]
  3. ein großes or hohes Tier (colloquial): a bigwig, a person of high rank.[9][8]
  4. (hunting) The female of red deer, fallow deer and elk, a hind.[9][1]

Word family

  • tierisch
  • Tierchen
  • Getier
  • Untier
  • vertieren
  • Tiergarten
  • Tierkreis
  • Tierarzt
  • Tierheim
  • Tierquälerei
  • Haustier
  • Raubtier
  • Kuscheltier
  • Maultier
  • Dunst
  • Duft
  • Dusel
  • English deer

Usage notes

The saying Quäle nie ein Tier zum Scherz, denn es fühlt wie du den Schmerz warns against cruelty to animals.[9][8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  3. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 917
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 331
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag