Wetter

Forms

Wetter n (genitive Wetters, plural Wetter, diminutive Wetterchen n)^[1] The doubled ⟨tt⟩ prevailed in late Middle High German;^[2] weter is still found in Albrecht von Eyb.^[2] In much of northern Germany the dialects dropped the /d/, with forms such as wer and wär.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German weter, inherited from Old High German wetar, inherited from Proto-Germanic *wedrą (“weather”).^[3][4][1] The same word is Old Saxon wedar (“weather, storm”), Old Norse veðr, Old English weder, Old Frisian weder and Dutch weer, and English weather.^[3][4][5]

Outside Germanic, Kluge compares Old Church Slavonic ведро (vedro, “fine weather”), and Pfeifer and the Grimms' dictionary derive both from Proto-Indo-European *u̯edʰro-, with the suffix of instrument nouns added to the root of wehen, Proto-Indo-European *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”); the word would first have meant “moving air, wind”.^[3][4][2][6] Kluge calls this probable but notes that the short vowel is unexplained.^[3] Kroonen holds that the forms point to a voiceless dental, so that the link with the Slavic word cannot be kept; the root “to blow” could be kept only with a reduced grade and a different suffix.^[5] The Grimms' dictionary thought the comparison with Lithuanian vėtra (“storm”) and вѣтръ (větrŭ, “wind”) less likely because of the vowel.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German wetar is first recorded in glosses from the end of the 8th century, then in Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “weather, air, wind, storm”, and also “good weather”.^[7][8] Old Saxon wedar meant “weather, storm”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From “moving air” the word came to mean both the state of the air and, especially, bad weather and storms; from the storm came “lightning” (14th century), which lasted into the 19th century and survives in Kleist's character Friedrich Wetter, Graf vom Strahl.^[4][9] Miners kept an older use: Wetter is the air in a pit (15th century), especially foul air, and schlagende Wetter (19th century) are explosive gases.^[4][9]

Weather became a figure of mood: um gut Wetter bitten “to ask for leniency” is in Christian Weise, and the word served in curses and exclamations such as potz Wetter (1841) and alle Wetter.^[9] The verb wettern “to thunder” came to mean “to curse, rail” from the 16th century, properly “to use the word Wetter in cursing”.^[9][10] Wetterwendisch (16th century) is “changing like the weather, fickle”.^[10][4]

Timeline

• End of the 8th century – Old High German wetar in glosses.^[7][4]
• 12th century – First record of Wetterhahn “weathercock”.^[9]
• 14th century – Sense “lightning”.^[4]
• 15th century – Miners' sense “air in the pit”;^[4][9] Wetterfahne “weathervane” is recorded.^[4][9]
• 16th century – wetterwendisch “fickle”, and wettern “to curse”.^[10][4]
• 1595 – Wetterstrahl “lightning bolt”.^[9]
• 19th century – schlagende Wetter “firedamp”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. weather: the state of the atmosphere at a place and time: Bei diesem Wetter bleiben wir lieber zu Hause.^[1][11]
2. (mining) The air in a mine;^[11][9] schlagende Wetter, firedamp.^[11][9]
3. (dated, regional) A storm, thunderstorm.^[1][11]

Word family

• Unwetter
• wettern
• Wetterleuchten
• wetterwendisch
• Wetterbericht
• Wetterfrosch
• Wetterhahn
• Wetterlage
• Wettervorhersage

Related words

• Gewitter
• wittern
• Witterung
• wehen
• English weather

Usage notes

A separate Wetter, masculine, is a person who bets, from wetten; the Grimms' dictionary records wetder in a 15th-century glossary.^[12][2] Regional dialects also have a Wetter for the forked wooden piece joining parts of a cart or plough.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 29, 698
3. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 985
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 385
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 931
11. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
12. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag