ab

Forms

ab (invariable)^[1] The older form abe is still found in Luther, and later in Schiller and Goethe as a deliberate archaism.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German abe, inherited from Old High German aba, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *ab, inherited from Proto-Germanic *ab (“away from, off”).^[3][4][1] The final vowel of the Old High German form was added later.^[3] The same word is Gothic 𐌰𐍆 (af), Old Norse af, Old English of, Old Frisian of and Old Saxon af, with the modern Dutch af, English of, off and Swedish av.^[3][4]

It continues Proto-Indo-European *h₂epó (“away, off”), also the source of Sanskrit अप (ápa, “away, off”), Ancient Greek ἀπό (apó, “from, away”) and Latin ab (“from”).^[3][4][5][6] In Germanic this preposition expressed separation, while Proto-Germanic *fram expressed movement from a place; in German the latter was replaced before the first records by the new formation von.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German aba is recorded from the last quarter of the 8th century, in the Benedictine Rule, then in the glosses, Isidor, the Hildebrandslied and Notker.^[7][8] It meant “from, away from, down from, out of”.^[8][7]

Semantic evolution

As a preposition the word was displaced by von from Middle High German on, while von is not used as an adverb or in compounds, so that the two complement each other.^[3][2] The literary language used the preposition into the 16th and 17th centuries, and Alemannic dialects, especially in Switzerland, keep it;^[4][2] Pestalozzi, Hebel and Mörike still wrote ab dem Pfade.^[4][2] A relic is abhanden, originally “from the hands”.^[3][9] At the end of the 19th century the preposition returned through the language of commerce, in ab Lager (1822), ab Hamburg, ab heute;^[3][4][2] Kluge sees these as shortened from von Hamburg ab, while Paul suspects influence of Latin.^[3][4][2]

As an adverb it is used mostly with verbs; on its own it appears in stage directions in the 18th century and in commands such as Hut ab! and ab ins Bett in the 19th.^[2][10] Ab und zu first meant “away and back”, in space, and now means “now and then”.^[2] The colloquial predicative use “off, detached”, as of a button, grew out of verbs such as abgehen.^[1][11] As a prefix, ab- developed senses such as “mis-”, “-less” and “counter-”, as in Abgott and Abgrund.^[3]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German aba in the Benedictine Rule.^[7]
• 1060–1080 – Middle High German abe in the Genesis.^[12]
• 16th–17th century – Last regular use of the preposition in the literary language.^[4]
• 18th century – ab in stage directions (“exits”).^[2]
• 1822 – Waren ab Lager “goods from stock”.^[2]
• Late 19th century – The preposition returns before places and times: ab 8 Uhr.^[4]

Meanings

Preposition

1. (commerce, transport) From, starting from a place: Der Zug fährt ab Köln.^[11][1]
2. From a point in time on: ab nächster Woche.^[11][1]
3. In a sequence or amount, from … upwards: Eintritt ab 16 Jahren.^[11][6]

Adverb

1. Away, off: zwei Kilometer vom Weg ab; also in brisk orders: ab nach Hause!^[11]
2. Down, in commands: Gewehr ab!^[11]
3. (colloquial) Off, detached: Der Henkel ist ab.^[11][1]
4. ab und zu, (northern) ab und an: now and then, occasionally.^[11][2]

Word family

• abhanden
• abseits
• abwärts

Related words

• aber
• Ebbe
• English off

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 3
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, Neubearbeitung (1965–2018), ed. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, 9 vols. (A–F), Leipzig / Stuttgart: Hirzel, p. 1, 17
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 27
9. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 98
10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 6
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling