Etymologically
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abschließen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʔapʃliːsn̩/, /ˈʔapʃliːsən/[1]

Forms

abschließen (class 2 strong, third-person singular present schließt ab, past tense schloss ab, past participle abgeschlossen, past subjunctive schlösse ab, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is from German ab- + schließen (“to close, lock”).[1][2] Paul traces it to Middle Low German afsluten, and finds it in High German from the 16th century, though it only became common in the 18th.[3]

The base verb schließen is sliezen, Old High German sliozan, beside Middle Low German sluten and Old Frisian slūta.[4] Kluge compares Latin claudō (“to shut”), clāvis (“key, bolt”), Ancient Greek κλείς (kleís, “bar, hook, key”) and Old Church Slavonic ключити (ključiti, “to close”), so that to close was originally “to put a bolt or peg in”.[4] Pfeifer explains the Germanic forms from Proto-Indo-European *skleud- by a simplification of the initial cluster, which he marks as a hypothesis.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, from West Central German in 1561, has the sense “to bring to an end”, used of accounts and contracts.[3][6] The sense “to lock with a key or bolt” is found by 1650, in Gryphius.[3]

Semantic evolution

Adelung (1774) gives both senses: to lock a door, a room or a house, and, figuratively, to close accounts and conclude a contract or a deal.[7][3] The noun Abschluss followed in 1727, in the senses of concluding a deal and of ending something.[3]

In the late 18th century the meaning widened.[3] Schiller used sich abschließen for shutting oneself off from the world, Jean Paul used the verb intransitively, “to end”, and Goethe, who used it more than 800 times, used it of a work of art that must be complete in itself.[3] Tieck has mit etwas abschließen, to put something behind one in resignation.[3] In the sense “to lock”, Paul notes, regional German prefers schließen, zuschließen or, in the south, zusperren and absperren.[3]

Timeline

  • 16th century – abschließen is recorded in High German, after Middle Low German afsluten.[3]
  • 1561 – First record, in the sense “to bring to an end”.[3]
  • 1650 – Gryphius uses it in the sense “to lock”.[3]
  • 1727 – First record of the noun Abschluß.[3]
  • 1774 – Adelung records the closing of accounts and of contracts.[3][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lock (a room, a cupboard, a car) with a key: Hast du die Haustür abgeschlossen?[8][1]
  2. (regional) To lock something away: den Schmuck abschließen.[8]
  3. To seal off, to cut off from the surroundings: eine Dose luftdicht abschließen.[8][1]
  4. To form the end or boundary of something: Eine Mauer schließt den Garten nach Norden ab.[8]
  5. To finish, to complete (studies, work, a book): Er hat sein Studium im Sommer abgeschlossen.[8][1]
  6. (intransitive, mit) To end with something, and mit etwas abgeschlossen haben, to have put something behind one: mit der Vergangenheit abschließen.[8][3]
  7. To conclude (a contract, an insurance policy, a deal, a bet): einen Mietvertrag abschließen.[8][1]

Word family

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  4. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 811
  5. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ 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, 1339
  7. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag