Truppe

Forms

Truppe f (genitive Truppe, plural Truppen)^[1] Early spellings include Troppe, Trouppe and, perhaps under Italian influence, Truppa.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French troupe (“group of people; body of soldiers”), borrowed at the beginning of the 17th century as a military word, separately from Trupp, which comes from the same French noun and was taken over at about the same time.^[3][4][2][5] The German noun keeps the feminine gender of the French word.^[4]

The French word is a back-formation from Old French tropel (“crowd, band; herd”) and goes back to Gallo-Romance and Medieval Latin troppus (“herd”).^[3][5] Its further origin is uncertain.^[6][7] Pfeifer and Wiktionary derive it from Frankish *þorp, related to Dorf, comparing Old Norse þorp in the sense “crowd, band”.^[3][1] Kluge and Duden follow Bursch's derivation from a verb based on Latin pēs (“foot”), “to measure off by the foot”, whence “to divide” and “division”, and then “herd”.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A plural troppen in a chronicle of the siege of Neuss (1474) is an isolated and doubtful early record.^[2][3] The word is established from the early 17th century: in 1603 a writer speaks of feindtlichen Laͤgern oder troupen “enemy camps or troops”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

At first Truppe was used mostly in the plural, as in French, for larger bodies of soldiers and for the units of a particular arm; from the second half of the 19th century the singular die Truppe also meant the army as a whole, especially the fighting forces at the front.^[2][3] It forms many compounds, such as Kampftruppe, Elitetruppe and Truppenteil.^[2]

From the first half of the 17th century the word was also used of any group of people or animals, and in the second half of the 18th century, after French, of a company of actors or acrobats.^[3] Today it is also used of a sports team.^[7][1] The colloquial von der schnellen Truppe sein means to do things very, or too, quickly.^[7]

Timeline

• 1474 – An isolated plural troppen in a chronicle of the siege of Neuss.^[2]
• 1603 – troupen “troops” is recorded.^[2]
• Mid-17th century – Vortruppe “vanguard” appears.^[2]
• Second half of the 18th century – Truppe is used of a company of actors.^[3]
• Second half of the 19th century – die Truppe “the fighting forces” in the singular.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A military unit; in the plural, troops or forces: Truppen abziehen, to withdraw troops.^[7][1]
2. (singular) The fighting forces at the front, the army in action: zurück zur Truppe.^[7][1]
3. A troupe of actors, acrobats or other performers; also a sports team.^[7][1]

Word family

• Truppenteil
• Kampftruppe
• Schutztruppe
• Theatertruppe

Related words

• Trupp
• Dorf
• English troop
• English troupe

Usage notes

Von der schnellen Truppe sein (colloquial) is to be very quick about something, often too quick.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 f g h 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 878
5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 933
6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag