Weltkrieg

Forms

Weltkrieg m (genitive Weltkrieges or Weltkriegs, plural Weltkriege)^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from German Welt (“world”) + Krieg (“war”).^[1][2][3] The first part, Middle High German werlt, Old High German weralt, is an old West Germanic compound of a word for “man” (as in Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂 (wair) and Latin vir) and a word related to alt, so that it first meant roughly “age of men, generation”.^[4][3] The second part, Middle High German kriec, Old High German krieg, first meant obstinacy and effort, then strife; its origin is unclear.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Grimms' dictionary finds weltkrieg first in 1599, in a sense close to “worldly strife”, the unrest of life in this world, and in a hymn by David von Schweinitz (1600–1667) who contrasts the peace of Christ with “this world's war”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The modern sense, a war between the great powers that involves many countries, appears in Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in 1814, who called Germany the battlefield of all world wars;^[6] Schelling, Holtei and C. F. Meyer used it in the same way.^[6] Duden dates the compound in this sense to the 19th century.^[3] It was first applied to particular conflicts such as the wars against Napoleon of 1813–15, and then above all to the war of 1914–18.^[6] Since the Second World War the two great wars have been named with ordinals, der Erste and der Zweite Weltkrieg.^[7]

The Grimms note the parallel compounds Danish verdenskrig, Swedish världskrig, Dutch wereldoorlog and English world war.^[6]

Timeline

• 1599 – weltkrieg is used of worldly strife.^[6]
• 1814 – Friedrich Ludwig Jahn uses the word for a war of many nations.^[6]
• 1856 – Schelling speaks of diseases that follow in the train of world wars.^[6]
• 1914–18 – The word becomes the name of the great war of those years.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A world war, a war in which many countries, especially the great powers, take part.^[7][1][2]
2. der Erste Weltkrieg, der Zweite Weltkrieg: the First and Second World Wars, 1914–18 and 1939–45: Ihr Großvater kämpfte im Ersten Weltkrieg.^[7]

Related words

• Welt
• Krieg
• English world war

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 981
5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 542
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 28, 1616
7. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag