Unterstützung

Forms

Unterstützung f (genitive Unterstützung, plural Unterstützungen)^[1]

Etymology

It is from German unterstützen + -ung.^[1][2][3] Parallel nouns are Dutch onderstutting, Danish understøtning and Swedish understöd.^[4]

The verb continues Middle High German understützen, Old High German untarstuzzen, an intensive formation with doubled consonant, Proto-West Germanic *stuttijan, beside Old High German gistuden (“to set up”) and Old Norse styðja (“to fix, support”); these are derived from a noun seen in Old English studu (“post”), English stud and Old Norse stoð (“post, prop”).^[5][6][7][1] The simple verb stützen is found in High German only from the early 17th century, and the noun Stütze belongs to the same family.^[6][7][3] Pfeifer and Duden trace the noun “post” to an extended form of the root of stehen;^[6][7][5] Kluge leaves the origin open, comparing the difficulties of Stunde and stur.^[6][7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first quotations in the Grimm dictionary are concrete: in 1527 Dürer, writing on fortification, advises a strong unterstützung behind the loopholes, and in 1541 Ryff's anatomy asks what understützung the brain has to keep its cavities from collapsing.^[4] Frisius's dictionary glosses Latin fulcimentum and fulcrum, a prop.^[4]

Semantic evolution

As a concrete word for a prop or support it was used of houses, vines and bridges, and technical language formed countless compounds with Unterstützungs- (Kant has Unterstützungspunct).^[4] Goethe wrote of a house whose beam has rotted, waiting in vain for a new Unterstützung.^[4]

The verb had been used figuratively for “to help, further” since Early New High German, and the noun followed it.^[3] Besides help of every kind, the noun came to mean a concrete sum of money: Goethe mentions people offering him Unterstützungen, and the banking law of 1875 speaks of pensions and Unterstützungen for surviving dependants.^[4] This sense of a regular allowance from the state or an institution is current today.^[8][2]

Timeline

• 1527 – Dürer uses unterstützung of a support in fortifications.^[4]
• 1541 – Ryff's anatomy uses understützung of the support of the brain.^[4]
• Early 17th century – The simple verb stützen appears in High German.^[6]
• 1875 – A banking law uses Unterstützungen for payments to dependants.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. support, help, backing: Sie kann auf die Unterstützung ihrer Familie zählen.^[8][1]
2. A sum of money given as support, an allowance or benefit: Er bekommt vom Sozialamt eine kleine Unterstützung.^[8][1]
3. A technical prop or brace.^[2][1]
4. (sports) An assist.^[1]

Related words

• Stütze
• unterstützen
• stützen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 24, 1847
5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 896
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 838
8. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag