Etymologically
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Verfahren

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Pronunciation

  • [fɛɐ̯ˈfaːʁən][1]

Forms

Verfahren n (genitive Verfahrens, plural Verfahren)[1]

Etymology

It is the infinitive of verfahren “to proceed, deal with” used as a noun, and took the place of the older Verfahrung (16th century).[2][3][4] Middle High German already had a noun vervarn, but only in the sense “going astray”.[3][2]

The verb is vervarn, Old High German firfaran, Proto-Germanic *frafaraną, formed with the prefix ver- on fahren.[1][2] The same formation is Old Saxon farfaran, Middle Low German vorvāren, Middle Dutch vervāren and Old English forfaran.[2] It first meant “to pass by, go away, perish, die” and “to go the wrong way”.[4][2] The sense “to proceed, act in a certain way” appeared first in Middle Low German legal language, transferred from the spatial sense “to go forward”, as with vorgehen.[5][4] Köbler traces faran to the root Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to lead across”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is first recorded in 1701, in a collection of documents of the Holy Roman Empire, of a solcherlei Verfahren that ought to be stopped: the way someone proceeds.[3][7] Pfeifer dates both the general sense “way of carrying something out” and the legal sense to about 1700.[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th century Verfahren is common in the sense of conduct or way of acting, in Lessing, Herder and Goethe.[3] Paul finds the legal sense “proceedings in a court” in Wieland.[7] In modern German it is above all a method or process in technology and science, and in law the series of steps by which a case is dealt with.[8] The participle verfahren “muddled, hopeless”, as in eine verfahrene Lage, is a separate development of the 19th century from the sense “to lose one's way”.[2][4]

Timeline

  • 9th century – Old High German firfaran “to go away, perish” is recorded.[2]
  • 16th century – verfahren takes on the sense “to proceed, act”, and the noun Verfahrung appears.[2]
  • 1701 – First record of the noun Verfahren.[3][7]
  • 18th century – Wieland uses it of court proceedings.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A procedure, method or process: the way something is carried out: ein neues Verfahren zur Reinigung von Abwasser.[8][1]
  2. (law) proceedings: the series of legal acts by which a case is dealt with: Gegen den Bürgermeister wurde ein Verfahren eröffnet.[8][1]

Word family

  • Gerichtsverfahren
  • Strafverfahren
  • Ermittlungsverfahren
  • Asylverfahren
  • Verfahrenstechnik
  • Verfahrensweise

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  3. ^ 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, 291
  4. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 897
  5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 951
  6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  8. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag