Etymologically
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allerdings

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʔalɐdɪŋs/, /ʔalɐˈdɪŋs/[1]

Forms

allerdings[1] Older forms are aller dinge, allerdinge and, in the 15th and 16th centuries, mostly allerding;[2] Upper German also had allerdingen.[2] The form allerdings appears in the mid-16th century and prevails in the 17th.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German allerdinge (“in all things, entirely”), written together from aller dinge, the genitive plural of al (“all”) and dinc (“thing”) used as an adverb.[3][2][4] Old High German already had the phrase allero thingo.[2]

In Early New High German the final -e was usually dropped, and the adverbial -s of the genitive singular was then added, as in schlechterdings, while the genitive plural of the first part was kept.[3][5][1] Klopstock found this mixture of plural and singular absurd and wanted both parts to agree in number.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The phrase is first recorded in the first half of the 13th century, in a poem of the Tugendhafte Schreiber, meaning “in every respect, entirely”.[2][3] The written-together allerdinge is found from about 1340.[2]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “in all things, entirely” was frequent in the 17th century, became rarer and died out in the 19th.[2] Around 1800 Adelung already found it hardly used in High German, though it occurred in the Bible.[6]

From the mid-18th century the word was used, with weakened meaning, to agree, confirm or stress, “certainly, indeed”, also on its own as an answer.[2][3] From this agreeing use the restrictive, conjunction-like sense “however, admittedly” developed, also from the mid-18th century.[2][4] In Swabian it can mean “almost”.[2]

Timeline

  • First half of the 13th century – aller dinge “entirely” is recorded.[2]
  • c. 1430 – The shortened form allerding appears.[2]
  • 1442 – aller dings, with the adverbial -s, is written separately.[2]
  • Mid-16th century – allerdings is written as one word;[2][4] it prevails in the 17th century.[2]
  • Mid-18th century – The senses “certainly” and “however” become common.[2]
  • 19th century – The old sense “entirely” goes out of use.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. However, admittedly; marks a restriction: Das Zimmer ist hell, allerdings sehr klein.[7][1]
  2. Certainly, indeed; an emphatic yes in answer to a question: „Warst du dort?“ – „Allerdings!“[7][1]
  3. (particle) Stresses the speaker's involvement: really, in fact.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. 2, 352
  3. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 32
  4. ^ a b c 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 222
  6. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  7. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag