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Woche

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Pronunciation

Forms

Woche f (genitive Woche, plural Wochen, diminutive Wöchlein n or Wöchelchen n)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German woche, inherited from Old High German wohha, older wehha, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wikā, inherited from Proto-Germanic *wikǭ (“sequence, week”).[2][1][3] The Old High German /o/ arose from /e/ under the influence of the preceding /w/, from the 11th century.[4] The same word is Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌺𐍉 (wikō, “order, sequence”), Old Norse vika (“week; sea mile”), Old English wicu, Old Frisian wike and Old Saxon wika, and today Dutch week, English week, Swedish vecka and Icelandic vika.[2][4][3]

It belongs to the same base as Wechsel and weichen, from Proto-Indo-European *weyg- (“to bend, turn, yield”).[2][4][5][1] Kluge also compares Latin vicis (“change, turn”), although its final consonant does not match, which he takes as variation.[2] The Old Norse sea mile is explained as the stretch after which the rowers took turns.[4][6] The usual view derives “week” from “giving way”;[3] Kroonen thinks that the Gothic sense and Faroese vika (“to shift, move”) point rather to an original “shift, change”.[3]

The word thus meant “change, sequence” and then a regularly recurring period, the series of days that follow one another.[2][4] When the Germanic peoples learnt of the seven-day week from the Romans, they used this native word for it.[5][6] The Grimms' dictionary notes that they did not borrow Latin septimana, which Irish borrowed: Old Irish sechtman.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German wehha is first recorded in glosses of the third quarter of the 8th century, and then in Isidor, the Benedictine Rule, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “week”.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

A woman who had given birth was to keep to her bed and room for six weeks, until her first church-going; so Middle High German sehs wochen named this time.[4][9] From about 1500 the plural die Wochen alone meant “childbed”.[4][9] In die Wochen kommen “to give birth” is recorded from the 16th century.[4][2] From this come Wochenbett (1595, shortened from Sechswochenbett) and Wöchnerin (1601), which replaced the older Kindbetterin.[9]

As the weekdays contrast with Sunday, in der Woche and unter der Woche came to mean “on working days”.[9][10] Wochenblatt (1741) is a loan translation of English weekly paper, and since the First World War Wochenende has also meant the free time from Saturday to Sunday evening, after English weekend.[9]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German wehha appears in glosses.[7][2]
  • 11th century – The form wohha with /o/ appears.[4]
  • 14th century – Wochenmarkt and wöchentlich are recorded.[9]
  • c. 1500 – The plural die Wochen is used for childbed.[4]
  • 1595 – Wochenbett is recorded.[9]
  • 1601 – Wöchnerin is recorded.[9]
  • 1741 – Wochenblatt is formed after English weekly paper.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A week: a recurring period of seven days, in the calendar beginning on Monday: in der dritten Woche des Monats.[10][1]
  2. Any period of seven days: Das Paket war zwei Wochen unterwegs.[1]
  3. (without plural, in phrases) The working days of the week, as opposed to the Wochenende: unter der Woche, während der Woche.[10][1]
  4. (plural, dated) Wochenbett, childbed: in die Wochen kommen “to give birth”.[10][11]

Word family

  • Wochenbett
  • Wöchnerin
  • wöchentlich
  • Wochenende
  • Wochentag
  • Wochenblatt
  • Wochenmarkt
  • wochenlang
  • Karwoche
  • Kalenderwoche
  • Mittwoch
  • -wöchig
  • Wechsel
  • weichen
  • English week

Usage notes

Englische Woche is a football term for a period of eight days in which a team plays three league matches, after the practice of the British leagues.[10] In die andere Woche gucken (colloquial, joking) is to stare absently into space.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 993
  3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 938
  6. ^ 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. 30, 923
  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. 376
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org