Etymologically
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Tisch

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Pronunciation

Forms

Tisch m (genitive Tisches or Tischs, plural Tische, diminutive Tischchen n or Tischlein n or Tischerl n)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German tisch, inherited from Old High German tisc, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *disk (“dish”), an early borrowed from Latin discus (“discus; flat dish, platter”), itself borrowed from Ancient Greek δίσκος (dískos, “discus, disc, plate”).[2][3][4][1] The same loan is Old English disc (“dish, plate”), Old Saxon disk and Middle Dutch disc, the source of English dish.[2][3] Kluge counts Old Norse diskr (“plate, serving dish”) among the borrowings from Latin, while Pfeifer and Duden 7 take it from Old English or Old Saxon.[2][3][4] The Greek noun is formed with the suffix ⟨-sk-⟩ from δικεῖν (dikeîn, “to throw”), so it was first the thrown disc.[3][4]

The initial /t/ is the regular High German shift of /d/;[5][6] Old High German also has the unshifted spelling ⟨disc⟩.[5][6] The change of sense from “dish” to “table” is explained by the furniture of the time: each diner was given a small wooden board on a stand, which served at once as table and dish, as Tacitus reports of the Germans.[2][3][4][7] Romance shows the same development: Italian desco (“dining table”) beside disco (“disc”), both from the Latin noun.[4][5]

The older Germanic words for the table were Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌿𐌸𐍃 (biuþs), Old English bēod and Old High German piot, from the verb “to offer”, and Gothic 𐌼𐌴𐍃 (mēs), Old High German mias, taken from Latin mēnsa.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German tisc is first recorded in glosses at the end of the 8th century, and then in Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram.[8][6][3] It meant “table” and “dish”, and also a tripod.[6][8] Middle High German tisch meant the dining table and, figuratively, the meal, and also a trader's table.[9][10]

Semantic evolution

At first, like Tafel, the word meant only the top; once it was fixed to its frame, the whole piece of furniture was meant, above all the dining table.[11] Many phrases come from meals: den Tisch decken, zu Tisch gehen (today also “to take one's lunch break”), bei Tisch; until the 19th century Tisch could mean the meal itself (einen guten Tisch führen “to keep a good table”), as it still does in Mittagstisch.[11] Tisch des Herrn was the Lord's Supper.[11]

Tisch und Bett stood for marriage, an old legal formula for its household and sexual community: so werden sie zu tisch und bett geschieden (1572, “so they are separated from table and bed”).[11][4] By another medieval legal custom, cutting the tablecloth in two meant breaking with someone.[11] The craftsman was first named Tischler in 1462, beside the older Tischer (1408); it is the northern and eastern word, Schreiner the western and southern one.[11][3] The verb tischen “to dine, to serve” (16th century) has given way to auftischen.[3][4]

Timeline

  • Late 8th century – Old High German tisc appears in glosses.[8][2]
  • c. 1150–1170 – Middle High German tisch in the Alexander of Lamprecht.[9]
  • 1408 – Tischer “joiner” is recorded.[11]
  • 1462 – Tischler is recorded.[11]
  • 16th century – The verb tischen “to dine, to serve food”.[3]
  • 1572 – Separation zu Tisch und Bett.[11]
  • 17th century – Auftischen “to serve up”.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A table: a piece of furniture with a flat top resting on legs or a stand, at which one eats or works or on which things are put.[12][1]
  2. The dining table and the meal taken at it: zu Tisch gehen, bei Tisch sitzen.[12][11][1]
  3. The people sitting round a table, a table company.[13][11]

Word family

  • Tischler
  • auftischen
  • Nachtisch
  • Mittagstisch
  • Schreibtisch
  • Tischtuch
  • Diskus
  • Diskette
  • English dish
  • English disk

Usage notes

Reinen Tisch machen (colloquial) is to clear things up, probably after a desk left empty at the end of the day.[12] A runder Tisch is a group of partners meeting as equals.[12] Am grünen Tisch means planning without practical knowledge: negotiating tables were once covered with green cloth or leather.[4] Von Tisch und Bett getrennt is said of a married couple living apart.[4] Wahrig explains etwas unter den Tisch fallen lassen (to ignore something) from the old custom of dropping inedible scraps under the table for the dogs and cats.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 918
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ 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, 505
  6. ^ a b c d Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 331
  7. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 1441
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org