Weise

Forms

Weise f (genitive Weise, plural Weisen)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German wīs(e), inherited from Old High German wīsa (“manner, way”), from a feminine noun Proto-Germanic *wīsō (“manner”).^[2][3][1] The same word is Old Saxon wīsa, Old English wīse, Old Frisian wīs and Old Norse vísa (“strophe, verse”), continued in Dutch wijze, English wise (“manner”) (now rare) and Swedish vis; it is found in every early Germanic language except Gothic.^[2][3]

It belongs to the root Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”) of wissen, and Kluge and Pfeifer see in it an old s-stem like Ancient Greek εἶδος (eîdos, “appearance, form, kind”).^[2][3] The sense developed from “appearance” through “nature” to “way of behaving”.^[3][4] The Romance words French guise and Italian guisa were borrowed from Germanic.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German wīs and wīsa are first recorded in glosses of about 765, then in Isidor, the Monsee fragments, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, with the senses “manner, way; custom; measure; melody”.^[6][7] Kluge notes that the word first appears in adverbial phrases such as “in another way”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Notker already uses wīsa for a melody, translating Latin modulatus and tonus;^[3][8][4] Duden suspects the influence of Latin modulatio.^[3][8][4] Middle High German paired wort und wīse, text and tune.^[3][8] The phrase Art und Weise dates from the 16th century.^[3]

Because of its general meaning the word served to replace adverbs, in phrases with auf and in: auf die beste Weise, in gewisser Weise.^[8] Genitive phrases governed by in, such as Middle High German in zornes wīs, gave the suffix -weise, productive since the 16th century, in adverbs like glücklicherweise, beispielsweise and stückweise; since the 18th century such forms have also been used as adjectives, as in Lessing's das stufenweise Steigen.^[3][8]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German wīs appears in glosses.^[6]
• c. 1000 – Notker uses wīsa for “melody”.^[3][8]
• 16th century – The phrase Art und Weise and the suffix -weise become common.^[3]
• 18th century – Words in -weise are also used as adjectives.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. way, manner, the form in which something happens or is done: Auf diese Weise sparen wir viel Zeit. Das ist in keiner Weise gerechtfertigt.^[9][1]
2. A short, simple tune or melody of a song: Die Kinder sangen eine fröhliche Weise.^[9][1]
3. (grammar) The mood of a verb.^[1]

Word family

• Ausdrucksweise
• Bauweise
• Denkweise
• Handlungsweise
• Herangehensweise
• Redeweise
• Sichtweise
• Sprechweise
• Verhaltensweise
• Vorgehensweise
• -weise
• beispielsweise
• glücklicherweise

Related words

• wissen
• weise
• English wise

Usage notes

Der Weise, die Weise “a wise person” (plural die Weisen) is the adjective weise used as a noun and is not this word; it is best known from Luther's die Weisen vom Morgenland for the Magi (Matthew 2:1), as well as der Stein der Weisen “the philosopher's stone”.^[8][10] Colloquial in keinster Weise “in no way at all” is used humorously.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 979
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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 28, 1045
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 394
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 28, 1039