Etymologically
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Werk

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Pronunciation

  • /vɛʁk/, [vɛʁk], [vɛɐ̯k][1]

Forms

Werk n (genitive Werkes or Werks, plural Werke, diminutive Werkchen n or Werklein n)[1] Upper German wrote werch and Central German often werg, a spelling the standard language later kept for Werg “tow”.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German werc, inherited from Old High German werc, inherited from Proto-Germanic *werką (“work”).[3][4][1] The same word is Old Saxon werk, Old Norse verk, Old English weorc, Old Frisian werk and Dutch werk.[3][5][6] It is not recorded in Gothic, which has the related formation 𐍅𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍃𐍄𐍅 (waurstw, “work, deed”).[2]

Kroonen treats it as a neuter noun beside the verb Proto-Germanic *wurkijaną (“to work”), the ancestor of wirken.[5][3] Outside Germanic it matches Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work, deed”), Old Armenian գործ (gorc, “work”) and Tocharian B werke (“hunting”), and the root is Proto-Indo-European *u̯erg̑- (“to work, do”), also seen in Avestan varəz- (“to work”).[3][4][6] The Duden dictionary takes the original sense to have been “wickerwork”,[7] and Wahrig derives the family from Proto-Indo-European *u̯er- (“to turn, bend, plait”).[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German werc, werah is recorded from the 8th century, in the Benedictine Rule, the Isidor translation, confessions and baptismal vows, and in Notker, meaning “work, deed, labour, service”.[3][9][4] Tatian and Otfrid have the form werc.[2]

Semantic evolution

Since Old High German times the word has meant both the activity of working and what the work produces.[4] The second sense was applied to artistic and intellectual products, like Latin opus, hence Goethes Werke and Kunstwerk, and finally to a book, as in Nachschlagewerk.[10] From the 14th century, and productively from the 17th, -werk forms collective nouns such as Backwerk, Schuhwerk, Mauerwerk and, for natural things, Laubwerk.[10]

Notker already used the word of a building, as still in Bauwerk.[10] In Middle High German it could also mean the raw material to be worked and a tool.[4] Since the 14th or 15th century the material sense has lived on in Räucherwerk and Feuerwerk.[10] A mechanism is called Werk from the Middle Low German Räderwerk of about 1250, hence Uhrwerk.[10] The sense “workplace” arose in the 16th and 17th centuries (Bergwerk, Hüttenwerk), and the sense “factory, plant” in the 17th.[10][4]

The derivative Gewerkschaft appeared in the 16th century for the members of a trade and especially a mining company, and its sense “trade union” came up in the second half of the 19th century.[11] Werktätige, for all working people who exploit no one, was used at the second congress of the Communist International in 1920.[4] The verb werken fell behind arbeiten, schaffen and wirken in the 17th century and was revived in the 19th by writers such as Gotthelf and Wilhelm Grimm.[4]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German werc is recorded.[4][3]
  • c. 1250 – Middle Low German Räderwerk uses the word for a mechanism.[10]
  • 14th–15th century – First records of the sense “material to be worked”.[10]
  • 16th century – Gewerkschaft appears; the phrase ans Werk gehen is recorded.[11][10]
  • 17th century – The sense “factory, plant” develops; collective nouns in -werk become productive.[4][10]
  • 1813 – Werkstoff is coined as a German word for Material.[10][11]
  • 1920 – Werktätige is used at the second congress of the Communist International.[4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Work, labour on a particular task: Die Helfer machten sich sofort ans Werk.[7][1]
  2. An act, a deed: ein Werk der Nächstenliebe;[7][1] ein gutes Werk tun.[7][1]
  3. A product of creative work, a work of art, literature or scholarship: die Werke Kafkas.[7][1]
  4. The whole output of an artist or writer, the œuvre.[7]
  5. (historical) A self-contained outer part of a fortress, with rampart and ditch.[7]
  6. A factory, industrial plant or works; also its workforce: Das Werk liegt am Fluss.[7][1]
  7. A mechanism that drives something, such as the works of a clock.[7][12]

Word family

  • Handwerk
  • Bauwerk
  • Bergwerk
  • Kunstwerk
  • Meisterwerk
  • Kraftwerk
  • Feuerwerk
  • Uhrwerk
  • Fuhrwerk
  • Stockwerk
  • Netzwerk
  • Lebenswerk
  • Nachschlagewerk
  • Werkstatt
  • Werkzeug
  • Werkstoff
  • Werktag
  • werktätig
  • werken
  • werkeln
  • Gewerkschaft
  • bewerkstelligen

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include etwas ins Werk setzen “to carry something out”, zu Werke gehen “to proceed, go about it” and am Werk sein “to be at work”.[7] Schiller's line soll das Werk den Meister loben (from Das Lied von der Glocke) is often quoted.[10] In some northern and central dialects a word Werk means “pain” or “cramp”; the Grimms' dictionary takes it to be the same word.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 29, 327
  3. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 983
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 383
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 929
  12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  13. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 29, 347