Etymologically
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Zug

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Pronunciation

  • /t͡suːk/, /t͡sʊx/, /t͡suːx/[1]

Forms

Zug m (genitive Zuges or Zugs, plural Züge)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German zuc, inherited from Old High German zug (“pulling, draught of fish”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tugi (“pull, draught”).[2][3][1] The same word is Middle Low German toch and Old English tyġe (“pull, tug, draught”), continued in Dutch teug and related to English tug.[3][4][1] The Grimms' dictionary notes that it is missing in Norse and not recorded in Gothic, and takes it to be a West Germanic formation.[4]

It is the verbal abstract of ziehen, formed from the zero grade of the verb with the grammatical change of /h/ to /g/.[3][2] That verb is Proto-Germanic *teuhaną (“to pull, lead”), the same word as Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (tiuhan, “to lead”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull, lead”), also found in Latin dūcō (“to lead, draw”).[5][6][1]

Kluge explains the wide range of its later senses partly by the influence of French train and trait, both of which first meant “pull”.[2] The railway sense is shortened from Wagenzug but also follows English train;[2] Duden calls it a loan translation of the English word.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German zug is first recorded in glosses of the second quarter of the 9th century, meaning a pulling and especially the hauling of a fishing net.[8][9] Paul notes that an Old High German compound for a dragnet, the ancestor of Zuggarn, already existed.[10]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German zuc covered the act of pulling, a move at chess, the stroke of an oar or a fiddle bow, a breath, a delay or respite, a journey or military expedition and a drawn line.[3][11][12] The Grimms' dictionary remarks that the word is thinly recorded in Old and Middle High German but appears in Early New High German with a great variety of senses, many of them developed anew from the start of the 18th century under French influence.[4]

Pfeifer traces three lines: the action of pulling, applied to a lasting movement such as a march or journey, a move in a board game, a breath or a gulp; the thing that pulls, applied to pulling devices in the 15th century, the moving air (the draught) in the 16th and the marching body of troops in the 17th; and the thing drawn, a line made with a pen and, figuratively, a trait of character.[3] From the marching unit came, from about 1840, the sense “a line of carriages drawn by an engine”, the railway train.[3][7] Features of the face (Gesichtszüge) were called Züge from the 17th century after French trait, which in turn gave Charakterzug.[10]

In den letzten Zügen liegen, to be at one's last breath, refers to the breath and is already found in Luther's Bible;[7][10] Zug um Zug first meant moving alternately in a board game.[7][10] German Zug was borrowed into Polish as cug (1540), into Russian as цуг (1702), a line of vehicles one behind another, and into Hungarian as cúg (1732), a military unit.[13]

Timeline

  • 2nd quarter of the 9th century – Old High German zug appears in glosses.[8]
  • 15th century – The word is used for pulling devices.[3]
  • 1540 – Polish borrows the word as cug.[13]
  • 1545 – Feldzug “military campaign” is recorded.[10]
  • 16th century – First records of the senses “group moving together” in military language and “draught of air”.[7]
  • 17th century – Züge des Gesichts “features”, after French trait.[10]
  • About 1840 – Zug comes to mean a railway train.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A train: an engine or railcar with the carriages coupled to it, on a railway, tramway or similar line: Der Zug nach Leipzig fährt heute von Gleis 4 ab.[14][1]
  2. A group of people or animals moving along together, a procession or column; also the moving along of such a group, as of migrating birds: der Zug der Kraniche nach Süden.[14][1]
  3. A pulling force acting in one direction: Das Seil hält einen starken Zug aus.[14][1]
  4. A device for pulling, such as a cord on a blind or the slide of a trombone;[14][1] (regional) a drawer.[14][1]
  5. (board games) A move: Nach dem Schach war Weiß wieder am Zug.[14][1]
  6. A gulp from a drink, a drag on a cigarette, or a deep breath: Sie trank die Limonade in einem Zug aus.[14][1]
  7. A stroke in swimming or rowing.[14][1]
  8. A draught of air, felt as unpleasant; also the draught of a stove or chimney.[14][1]
  9. A line of writing or drawing;[14] in großen Zügen, in broad outline.[14]
  10. A typical line of the face, an expression; a characteristic trait: Um ihre Augen lag ein müder Zug.[14][1]
  11. (military) A platoon; in schools, a branch or stream of study.[14][1]
  12. The spiral groove inside the barrel of a gun (rifling).[14]

Word family

  • zügig
  • zugig
  • Aufzug
  • Atemzug
  • Charakterzug
  • Feldzug
  • Flaschenzug
  • Gesichtszug
  • Klimmzug
  • Kreuzzug
  • Luftzug
  • Schachzug
  • Zugvogel
  • Zugzwang
  • ziehen
  • Zügel
  • Zucht
  • Zeug
  • Herzog
  • English tug

Usage notes

Der Zug ist abgefahren (“the train has left”) is said colloquially when it is too late to change anything.[14] Etwas in vollen Zügen genießen is to enjoy something to the full.[14] Paul dates the figurative das Leben in vollen Zügen genießen to the mid-18th century.[10] The Swiss canton and town of Zug are named after the hauling of fishing nets, and then after a stretch of lake with fishing rights.[15][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1016
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 32, 376
  5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1009
  6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 957
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 410
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1163
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  15. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org