Tochter

Forms

Tochter f (genitive Tochter, plural Töchter, diminutive Töchterchen n or Töchterlein n or Töchterl n)^[1] The Old High German plural was tohtera;^[2] Middle High German usually had tohter without an ending, beside umlauted töhter and weak tohtern.^[2] The modern plural Töchter continues the umlauted form.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German tohter, inherited from Old High German tohter, inherited from Proto-Germanic *duhtēr (“daughter”).^[3][4][5][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌷𐍄𐌰𐍂 (daúhtar), Old Norse dóttir, Old English dohtor, Old Saxon dohtar and Old Frisian dochter, continued in Dutch dochter, English daughter and Swedish dotter.^[3][5][4]

It continues the Indo-European word for “daughter”, Proto-Indo-European *dʰugh₂tḗr, also found in Sanskrit दुहितृ (duhitṛ́), Avestan dugədar, Ancient Greek θυγάτηρ (thugátēr), Old Armenian դուստր (dustr), Lithuanian duktė, Old Church Slavonic дъшти (dŭšti) and Tocharian B tkācer.^[5][3][4] It is formed with the suffix of kinship terms, Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr, like Mutter.^[4][6]

Its further origin is unclear.^[3][4] The Grimms' dictionary calls the old explanation as “the milker”, from the Sanskrit root for milking, doubtful, and connects the word with taugen instead.^[2] Pârvulescu derives it from a root Proto-Indo-European *dʰewgʰ- (“to produce, work”), so that it would have meant first “worker, servant”, then “girl” and “daughter”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German tohter is first recorded in glosses of the last quarter of the 8th century, and then in Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “daughter”.^[7][8] Old Saxon has dohtar.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Beside the kinship sense, the older language used it more generally for a young woman or girl, a sense that survives in Switzerland;^[3][9] Kluge suspects the influence of French fille.^[3][9] Hence Swiss Saaltochter “waitress” and Ladentochter “shop assistant”, and the Töchterschule (1773), a school for girls.^[3][9] Older people addressed a young woman familiarly as meine Tochter.^[9][10]

Luther's Bible used it for the women of a people or a place, as in du Tochter Zion (Zechariah 9:9), and it came to express an origin, as in Hölderlin's “love, God's daughter”.^[9] After French fille de joie, Tochter der Freude became a veiled term for a prostitute.^[11][9] In business German it is short for Tochtergesellschaft, a subsidiary company.^[9][1]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German tohter appears in glosses.^[7][3]
• 1060–1065 – Williram of Ebersberg uses the form dohter.^[12]
• 1460 – The plural dochtere is recorded in a Weistum.^[2]
• 1773 – First record of Töchterschule, a school for girls.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A daughter: a female child in relation to her parents.^[11][1]
2. (dated) A form of address to a younger woman.^[11]
3. (Switzerland, dated) An unmarried young woman, especially one employed in a restaurant or a household.^[11]
4. (jargon) Short for Tochtergesellschaft: a subsidiary company.^[11][1]

Word family

• Töchterchen
• Schwiegertochter
• Stieftochter

Related words

• Tochtersprache
• English daughter

Usage notes

Die Tochter des Hauses is the grown-up daughter of the family.^[11][9] Höhere Tochter, a girl from a good middle-class home, is dated and now jocular.^[11] Tochtermann “son-in-law”, a Middle High German compound, is dated and survives in the southwest.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 21, 532
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 919
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 332
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 611
11. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling