Unfall

Forms

Unfall m (genitive Unfalles or Unfalls, plural Unfälle)^[1] Many dialects have a long vowel in the second syllable, and the written language reflects it into the 17th century with spellings such as unfahl (Hans Sachs) and unfaal.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German unval (“misfortune”), which took the place of older ungeval, formed from German un- + Fall.^[3][4][1][5] The older word is also Middle Low German ungeval and Middle Dutch ongheval, continued in Dutch ongeval (“accident”); it is the negation of Middle Low German geval (“chance, luck”), compare zufallen (“to fall to one's share”), so that the first meaning was “bad luck”.^[3][4] Wahrig takes the Middle High German word to have come from Middle Low German.^[6] The prefix un- here means “bad”, not simply “not”, as in Untat; the concrete sense of Fall has faded, as in Zufall and Anfall.^[7][8] The Grimms compare Old Frisian unfall and Old Norse úfall.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German ungeval “misfortune, mishap” appears in Hartmann von Aue's Erec (about 1185), and the shorter unval in Meister Eckhart (before 1326) and Oswald von Wolkenstein.^[9] Kluge dates Unfall to the 15th century, and the Duden dictionary gives Early New High German unval “misfortune” from then.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

Until the 19th century Unfall meant misfortune in general: Luther writes viele kommen zu Unfall (“many come to harm”), and Goethe still speaks of the Unfälle suffered under the French occupation.^[10] Adelung already found the biblical use for a state of misfortune largely out of date.^[11] The narrower sense, a single event that causes injury or damage, appears now and then in Early New High German.^[10] From the later 19th century the insurance system fixed the word to it, with many compounds: Unfallversicherung, Unfallrente, Unfallverhütung.^[10] The Grimms note that working people said die Unfall, feminine, when they meant the state accident insurance.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1185 – Middle High German ungeval is used in Hartmann's Erec.^[9]
• Before 1326 – Meister Eckhart uses unval.^[9]
• 15th century – Unfall becomes the usual form.^[3][7]
• 16th century – Luther uses it for misfortune in general.^[10]
• Later 19th century – Through accident insurance the word is fixed to the sense “accident”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An accident: a sudden, unintended event in which people are hurt or killed or things are damaged: ein Unfall auf der Autobahn, einen Unfall verursachen;^[5][1] (colloquial) einen Unfall bauen, to have an accident.^[5][1]
2. (dated) Misfortune, mishap.^[5][10]

Word family

• Unfallversicherung
• Unfallflucht
• Verkehrsunfall
• Arbeitsunfall

Related words

• Fall
• fallen
• Zufall

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 24, 521
3. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 941
4. ^ a b 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 d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
7. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 846