Verfügung

Forms

Verfügung f (genitive Verfügung, plural Verfügungen)^[1]

Etymology

It is from German verfügen + -ung.^[1][2][3] The verb verfügen is recorded from the 15th century, as Early New High German ⟨verfüegen⟩ and Middle Low German vorvogen (“to arrange”);^[4][3][5][6] Köbler and Duden also list a rare Middle High German vervüegen (“to suit, befit”).^[4][3][5][6] It was formed from fügen, Middle High German vüegen, Old High German fuogen (“to join, fit together”), Proto-West Germanic *fōgijan, which Kluge traces to Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ḱ- (“to fasten”), also found in Sanskrit पाशयति (pāśáyati, “binds”), Ancient Greek πήγνυμι (pḗgnumi, “I fasten”) and Latin compāgēs (“joint”), the last from a variant of the root.^[7][8]

Among other things the verb meant “to arrange”, whence “to order, decree”, which became a typical word of officialdom.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Grimms' dictionary finds the noun rare in the older language and first in the dictionaries with Stieler;^[9] Melanchthon used it in the original sense “joining together”, in his commentary on 1 Corinthians 13.^[9] Pfeifer dates the sense “order” to the 16th century, Duden to the 17th.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Paul records Verfügung as “order” and as “the thing ordered” from Stieler, and the set phrase eine Verfügung treffen from Schiller's Maria Stuart.^[10] A letztwillige Verfügung is a will.^[11][9]

In the 19th century über etwas verfügen came to mean “to have something at one's disposal, use it freely”, and with it Verfügung “the power to dispose of something” in the phrases zur Verfügung stehen and zur Verfügung stellen.^[6][10] The adjective verfügbar was formed in the 19th century to translate disponibel.^[6]

Timeline

• 15th century – The verb verfügen is first recorded.^[4]
• 16th century – Melanchthon uses verfügung for “joining together”; the sense “order” appears.^[9][3]
• 17th century – Stieler records Verfügung “order, decree”.^[9][10]
• 19th century – über etwas verfügen “to have at one's disposal” and verfügbar appear.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. An order or decree of an authority or a court: eine einstweilige Verfügung “an interim injunction”;^[11][1] eine letztwillige Verfügung “a last will”.^[11][1]
2. Disposal: the right or ability to use something freely: zur Verfügung stehen “to be available”, etwas zur Verfügung stellen “to make something available”.^[11][1]
3. (law) A disposition: a legal act that directly affects an existing right, such as transferring it to someone else.^[2]

Word family

• Verfügungsgewalt
• verfügungsberechtigt

Related words

• verfügbar
• verfügen
• fügen
• Fuge
• Fug

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
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 d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 951
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 322
8. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 631
9. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 358
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag