Etymologically
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Zeit

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Pronunciation

  • [t͡saɪ̯t][1]

Forms

Zeit f (genitive Zeit, plural Zeiten)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German zīt, inherited from Old High German zīt, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tīdi, inherited from Proto-Germanic *tīdiz (“time”).[2][3][1][4] The same word is Old Norse tíð, Old English tīd, Old Frisian tīd, Old Saxon tīd, Dutch tijd and Swedish tid;[2][3][4][5] Gothic lacks it.[2][3][4][5] In English and Low German it also took on the sense of the tides: English tide and Low German Tide.[2][6] A parallel formation with an “-m-” suffix is Old Norse tími, tīma, the source of time, and Alemannic German zīmə, so that Kluge sets up a Germanic base *tī-.[2][3]

Its further origin is disputed.[2][3] Kluge compares an Armenian word for “age, time” and then a pronominal stem Proto-Indo-European *d- specialised for time, with extensions meaning “day”, “time” and “long”, as in Latin diū (“for a long time”) and Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍉 (sinteinō, “always”).[2] Pfeifer, the Duden dictionary and Wahrig instead derive it, in the sense “something divided off, a section”, from the zero grade of the root Proto-Indo-European *dā(i)- (“to divide, cut up”), also found in Ancient Greek δαίεσθαι (daíesthai, “to divide”) and δῆμος (dêmos, “people, district”), and in German Teil.[3][6][7] Wiktionary gives the Indo-European form as *déh₂itis, a noun in *-tis.[1]

Old High German and Middle High German use it as a feminine and as a neuter.[2][3] The Isidor has a form “ziidh” with grammatical change.[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German zīt is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses from 765 and then in the Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[2][9] It meant time in general, an age or period, a point in time, a lifetime, a season, an hour, the right time, and the hours of prayer or the time of fasting.[10][9]

Semantic evolution

Paul puts first the sense of a definite moment within the course of events, which survives in many phrases: zur rechten Zeit, von Zeit zu Zeit, alles hat seine Zeit (from the Bible), and adverbs made from old cases, such as derzeit, jederzeit and allezeit.[5] From the sense “the right moment for something” comes es ist Zeit, in which Zeit was at first a genitive.[5] Beizeiten “in good time”, Middle High German bezīte, keeps an old case form that was no longer felt as a plural.[5]

Middle High German used it for an age of life, life itself, the season, the time of day, the hour and the canonical hours.[3][11] Adelung around 1800 set the philosophical sense, the succession of finite things opposed to eternity, apart from the everyday senses of a period, a duration and a point in time.[12] The strong plural forms gave way to the weak plural Zeiten in the New High German period, though they lasted into the 16th century.[8] Hebrew took Zeitgeist and Zeitnot from German.[13]

Timeline

  • 765 – Old High German zīt in glosses.[9]
  • Late 8th century – The Isidor has the variant ziidh.[8]
  • 10th century – The adjective zītīg “timely, early ripe” is recorded.[3]
  • 16th century – The old strong plural forms still appear beside the weak plural Zeiten.[8]
  • 16th century – Zeitgenosse “contemporary” is formed.[6]
  • 18th century – Zeitalter “age, era” is formed.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. time, the steady succession of moments, hours, days and years: Am Wochenende vergeht die Zeit viel zu schnell.[14][1]
  2. A point in time or a limited period: die Zeit der Weinlese.[14][15]
  3. Time available for something: Hast du heute Nachmittag Zeit?[14]
  4. An era, a period of the past: in der Zeit der Romantik.[1][15]
  5. The time of day, short for Uhrzeit.[1]
  6. A period of service, a stint, as in the army.[1]
  7. (grammar) tense.[1][15]

Word family

  • zeit
  • zeitlich
  • zeitig
  • zeitigen
  • derzeit
  • jederzeit
  • zurzeit
  • beizeiten
  • Zeitalter
  • Zeitgenosse
  • Zeitgeist
  • Zeitlose
  • Zeitpunkt
  • Zeitraum

Usage notes

The preposition zeit, a fossilised accusative, survives only in zeit meines Lebens and the like, “all my life”.[14][1] The proverb Kommt Zeit, kommt Rat says that a way out will be found in time.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1005
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 947
  7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 31, 521
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 408
  11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  12. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 1675
  13. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  14. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  15. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org