Etymologically
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Trainer

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈtʁɛːnɐ/, /ˈtʁeːnɐ/, /ˈtʁɛɪ̯nɐ/[1]

Forms

Trainer m (genitive Trainers, plural Trainer, feminine Trainerin)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from English trainer, the agent noun of the verb train (“to bring up, school, break in”), which also gave trainieren.[2][3][4] The English verb is from Old French traïner (“to drag, trail”), from Vulgar Latin *tragīnō (“to drag along”), based on Latin trahō (“to draw, drag”).[3][4][5] Kluge traces the sense in English from “to draw” through “to rear” to “to break in, train”, especially of young horses, and then “to practise oneself”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first German record, from 1830, reports a racing club's decision to hire an English rider, einen Träner “by the touching fashionable term”, to train horses for racing.[2] At first the word referred mostly to the English racing world.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning of the 20th century it was used more and more of anyone who trains athletes for competition, in football by 1907, and it entered compounds such as Bundestrainer and Trainerbank.[2][3] In the 1950s, probably under renewed English and American influence, it also came to mean a person who runs training courses for working people, as a Verkaufstrainer “sales trainer”.[2] It also named a training version of an aircraft.[2] German Trainer was borrowed into Hungarian as tréner by 1854.[6]

Timeline

  • 1830 – First record, as Träner, of a trainer of racehorses.[2]
  • 1844 – Spelled Trainer.[2]
  • 1907 – Used of English football clubs' trainers.[2]
  • Early 20th century – Becomes the general word for a sports coach.[3][2]
  • 1955 – Used of a trainer in business.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (sports) A coach, a person who trains athletes or a team.[7][1]
  2. (horse racing) A person who keeps and trains racehorses.[7]
  3. A person who runs training courses for professionals.[2]
  4. (Austria, Switzerland) A tracksuit.[1][8]

Word family

  • Trainerin
  • Bundestrainer
  • trainieren
  • Training
  • Trainee

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 924
  5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  7. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org