Etymologically
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Vater

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfaːtər/, /ˈfaːtɐ/, /ˈfatər/[1]
  • Germany: [ˈfɑːtʰɐ][1]
  • Austria, Southern-Germany, Switzerland: /ˈfɑːtɐ/[1]

Forms

Vater m (genitive Vaters, plural Väter, diminutive Väterchen n)[1] The stem vowel was short in older German and was lengthened in New High German; it stays short in Gevatter and in most Central and Upper German dialects.[2] The spelling vatter was common until the late 17th century, and Luther's Bible of 1545 helped vater to prevail.[2] Old High German left the genitive and dative singular without an ending.[3] The umlauted plural veter begins in Middle High German and finally displaced the plural vater.[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vater, inherited from Old High German fater, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fader, inherited from Proto-Germanic *fadēr (“father”).[5][6][1] The same word is Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌳𐌰𐍂 (fadar), Old Norse faðir, Old English fæder, Old Frisian feder and Old Saxon fadar, and it lives on in Dutch vader, English father and Swedish fader.[5][6] Gothic has it only once, in Galatians 4:6, and otherwise uses 𐌰𐍄𐍄𐌰 (atta).[5][7]

It continues Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr (“father”), also found in Sanskrit पितृ (pitṛ́), Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr), Latin pater, Old Irish athir, Tocharian A pācar and Tocharian B pācer.[5][6][1] It is formed with the suffix of the kinship terms, as are Mutter, Bruder and Tochter.[6][8] Kroonen describes it as a ter-stem with the accent on the suffix.[9] The word shows the First Germanic Sound Shift, by which /p/ became /f/;[10] the /t/, however, appears as Germanic /d/, which the Grimms called an irregular shift, and Wiktionary sets up an earlier *faþḗr.[2][1]

Kluge takes the word to refer to the father's social position as master of the household and the extended family, and finds no certain further etymology.[5] Pfeifer and the Duden consider either a nursery word or the root Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, protect, pasture”), without deciding;[6][8] Wahrig favours the root,[10] and Köbler gives it the sense “to feed”.[11] Beside the formal word most languages have a nursery word for the physical father, such as the Gothic one above, English daddy and Papa.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German fater is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses (about 765) and the Hildebrandslied, and then often in Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[5][11][7] It meant “father”, and also “abbot” and, glossing Latin creator and genitor, “creator, begetter”;[7][12] hōhēr fater was a patriarch.[7][12]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German used the word of God and of the ruler of a land (ein vater des landes).[4] The plural came to include more distant ancestors, as in zu seinen Vätern versammelt werden, and many compounds name men who fill part of a father's role: Stiefvater, Pflegevater, Schwiegervater, Landesvater, Beichtvater, Kirchenvater.[13] The Pope is der Heilige Vater, and a venerable old man could be called Vater, as in Turnvater Jahn.[13][14] After Latin pater patriae one spoke of a Vater des Vaterlandes, and, with the sense of authorship, of der Vater des Gedankens or the fathers of the Basic Law;[13] Döblin has Vater Staat.[13] In northern Germany Vater is often used in the family without the article, like a name, which gave rise to an accusative Vatern.[13]

Vaterland, Old High German faterlant, is an 11th-century rendering of Latin patria;[13][6] the Duden dates it to the 12th century.[8] The Vaterunser follows Latin pater noster, with the possessive after the noun.[8][6] The colloquial Vatermörder “high stiff collar” (19th century) is probably a folk-etymological reinterpretation of French parasite as parricide.[8] Hungarian borrowed fater “father” (1628), and English took over Vaterland for a German's fatherland (1852).[15]

Timeline

  • About 765 – Old High German fater appears in glosses.[11][5]
  • 11th century – faterlant “fatherland” is formed after Latin patria.[13][6]
  • Middle High German – The umlauted plural veter begins.[2]
  • 1545 – Luther's Bible spells vater rather than vatter.[2]
  • 1628 – Hungarian fater is recorded as a loan from German.[15]
  • 18th century – vater is the only spelling of the written language;[2][6] vaterländisch appears.[2][6]
  • 1852 – English records Vaterland.[15]
  • 19th century – Vatermörder names a high collar.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A father: a man who has begotten one or more children: im Sommer ist er zum zweiten Mal Vater geworden.[14][1]
  2. A man who takes the role of a father, bringing up children: die Kinder haben in ihm einen neuen Vater gefunden.[14]
  3. A protector and helper of others: ein Vater der Armen.[14][13]
  4. The originator or founder of something: der geistige Vater des Plans.[14][13]
  5. (Christianity) God the Father; a title and form of address of priests;[14][16] Heiliger Vater is the title of the Pope.[14][16]
  6. (plural, elevated) Ancestors, forefathers.[16][13]

Word family

  • väterlich
  • Vaterland
  • vaterländisch
  • Vaterunser
  • Vatermörder
  • Stiefvater
  • Großvater
  • Schwiegervater
  • Vetter
  • Gevatter
  • Pater
  • Patriot
  • English father

Usage notes

Vater Staat (humorous) is the state, especially as collector of taxes and giver of money, and Vater Rhein the Rhine personified.[14] Kesser Vater (slangy, often derogatory) is a masculine-looking lesbian woman.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 13
  3. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 654
  4. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 32
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 948
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 88
  8. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 893
  9. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  11. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  12. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 98
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  15. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  16. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org