Vergangenheit

Forms

Vergangenheit f (genitive Vergangenheit, no plural)^[1]

Etymology

It is from German vergangen + -heit, from the past participle of vergehen “to pass”.^[1][2][3] The participle vergangen belongs to the old verb Old High German gangan (“to go”), from Proto-Germanic *gangan, which supplies the past forms of gehen.^[4][5] The Grimms' dictionary calls the noun relatively young and finds no record of it in the medieval language;^[6] Köbler lists a medieval Middle High German vergangenheit in the 14th-century mystics Heinrich Seuse and Elsbeth Stagel, but there it meant passing away, transience and rapture, not the time that has passed.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer, Paul and the Grimms' dictionary date the word to the 18th century; the first record they quote is Gottsched's grammar of 1757, which divides the past tenses into dreierlei stuffen der vergangenheit “three degrees of the past”.^[4][8][6] Before it, people said die vergangene Zeit, as Schottelius did in 1663, and di vergangen zeit is found around 1400.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

In its general sense, the time before the present, the word spread in the later 18th century;^[8][6] Paul names Schiller, and the Grimms quote Heine looking back in die vergangenheit.^[8][6] As a grammatical term for the past tenses of the verb it became usual in the 19th century.^[4] A person's Vergangenheit is their earlier life, often with a suggestion of things they would rather not talk about.^[2] The phrase die unbewältigte Vergangenheit, and the compound Vergangenheitsbewältigung, came to refer especially to the crimes of National Socialism.^[2][8]

Timeline

• About 1400 – di vergangen zeit “the past time”.^[4]
• 1663 – Schottelius uses vergangene Zeit for the past tense.^[8]
• 1757 – Gottsched's Sprachlehre has Vergangenheit for the past tenses.^[6][8]
• 19th century – Established as the grammatical term.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The past, the time before the present and what happened in it: Wir sollten aus der Vergangenheit lernen.^[2][1][3]
2. A person's earlier life; a group's or a town's history: Das Dorf ist stolz auf seine Vergangenheit.^[2][3]
3. (grammar) The past tense, a form of the verb for a past event.^[2][1]

Word family

• Vergangenheitsbewältigung

Related words

• vergehen
• vergangen
• Zukunft
• Gegenwart

Usage notes

Etwas gehört der Vergangenheit an means that something is no longer customary or useful.^[2] Die unbewältigte Vergangenheit “the past not yet come to terms with” refers especially to the crimes of the National Socialist period.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
3. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d e f Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ 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, 374
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer