Etymologically
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Vortrag

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfoːɐ̯ˌtʁaːk/[1]

Forms

Vortrag m (genitive Vortrages or Vortrags, plural Vorträge)[1]

Etymology

It is a noun formed from the verb vortragen, which could be narrowed to the sense “put forward in words”.[2][3] The verb is inherited from Middle High German vürtragen, inherited from Old High German furitragan, a compound of vor and tragen.[4][5] Middle High German has no such noun, although the verb in the sense “set out in words” is older; the noun also had the form Fürtrag, and the present form spread only in the 17th century, while the older prefix disappeared from the written language during the 18th.[6][4] Danish foredrag was borrowed from German.[6]

The simple verb is Middle High German tragen, Old High German tragan, from Proto-Germanic *draganą (“to draw, pull, carry”), the same verb as Gothic 𐌳𐍂𐌰𐌲𐌰𐌽 (dragan), Old Saxon dragan, Dutch dragen, Old English dragan (“to drag, draw”) and Old Norse draga (“to draw”).[7][8][9] Pfeifer reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *dʰerāgʰ- (“to draw, drag along the ground”) and notes that connections outside Germanic are not certain;[7][10] Kroonen calls it an o-grade intensive verb with no clear etymology, and rejects the comparison with Latin trahō (“to pull”) because of its initial /t/.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul cites Vortrag meaning “speech” from 1503.[5] The Grimms' dictionary has it from 1628 (Zincgref's Apophthegmata) and 1648 (Rist), and Schottel's grammar of 1663 glosses it as Latin propositio.[6] In the older language it meant a statement put forward in words: an assertion, a thesis, a declared wish or a proposal.[6]

Semantic evolution

Adelung (1793) distinguishes three senses: the act of presenting something, as when an official reports to the prince or a matter is laid before a council; the manner of presenting it, including the speaker's bearing and gestures; and what is presented, a connected series of statements.[11] The old sense “proposal”, still found in the young Goethe, later fell out of use.[6] From the 18th century Vortrag also meant a musical performance, as vortragen did from the end of that century.[5] The usual sense today is a talk or lecture on a subject; the bookkeeping sense, a balance carried forward, is a term of commerce.[12]

Timeline

  • 1503 – Vortrag in the sense “speech”.[5]
  • 16th century – Kluge's date for the noun.[2]
  • 1628 – Zincgref uses Vortrag.[6]
  • 1663 – Schottel lists Vortrag for Latin propositio.[6]
  • 18th century – A musical performance; the spelling Fürtrag disappears from the written language.[5][4]
  • 1793 – Adelung describes the sense “manner of delivery”.[11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A talk or lecture on a subject, often a scholarly one: Die Professorin hielt einen Vortrag über Vulkane.[12][1]
  2. The performance or delivery of a poem, a piece of music or a routine: Ihr Vortrag des Liedes war sehr ruhig.[12][3]
  3. A report to a superior: Vortrag beim Minister haben.[12][11]
  4. (commerce) A balance carried forward to a new account.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c 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. 964
  3. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  4. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 26, 1762
  5. ^ a b c d e 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 f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 26, 1754
  7. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  8. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  12. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag