Verlag

Forms

Verlag m (genitive Verlages or Verlags, plural Verlage or Verläge)^[1]

Etymology

It is a noun formed from verlegen in its old sense “to lay out money, take the cost of something on one's own account”, a sense of late Middle High German “verlegen”.^[2][3][1] The verb itself is legen with the prefix ver-.^[3] The Grimms note that Middle High German had the verb but no matching noun, using “verlegunge” instead.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul and Wiktionary date the noun to the 16th century, when it meant “expenses, outlay for an undertaking”.^[5][1][3] The Grimms quote Leonhard Thurneisser (1575), who says a work was compiled durch kaiser Friderichs verlag, “at the expense of Emperor Frederick”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the sense “to pay the costs for someone” the verb verlegen came to mean, in the 16th century, “to bear the costs of printing, bring out a book”.^[3] The noun followed: Pfeifer dates “printing and publishing of books” to the second half of the 17th century, “the books published” to the second half of the 18th, and “publishing firm” to the 19th;^[3][5] Paul cites Bücher-Verlag from 1673.^[3][5] Goethe still uses it of the activity in his letters to Cotta.^[5] The general sense “outlay” survives in Möser and Goethe.^[5][4]

The agent noun Verleger meant “entrepreneur” in the 15th century and was narrowed to the publisher of books in the 17th.^[2][3] Selbstverlag is recorded in Voß in 1780, and Bierverlag, a beer distributor, around 1900.^[5]

Timeline

• 16th century – Verlag “costs, outlay”.^[5][3]
• 1575 – Thurneisser: durch kaiser Friderichs verlag.^[4]
• 1673 – Bücher-Verlag.^[5]
• Second half of the 17th century – “publishing of books”.^[3]
• 1780 – Selbstverlag in Voß.^[5]
• Second half of the 18th century – “the books a publisher has brought out”.^[3]
• 19th century – “publishing firm”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A publisher, a publishing house: Der Roman erscheint im Herbst in einem kleinen Verlag.^[6][1]
2. (commerce, dated) A wholesale business acting as a middleman, as for beer.^[6][7]
3. (Switzerland, colloquial, derogatory) Things left lying about, clutter.^[6]

Word family

• Verleger
• Selbstverlag
• Bierverlag
• Verlagsbuchhandlung
• Verlagsrecht
• Verlagshaus

Related words

• verlegen
• legen

Usage notes

Ein Buch in Verlag geben and in Verlag nehmen are now dated.^[6] In Austria the plural is also Verläge.^[6][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 954
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 711
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org