Etymologically
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alt

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Pronunciation

  • /alt/, [ʔalt], [ɑlt][1]

Forms

alt (strong nominative masculine singular alter, comparative älter, superlative am ältesten)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German alt, inherited from Old High German alt, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *ald, inherited from Proto-Germanic *aldaz (“grown up, old”).[2][3][4] The same word is Old Saxon ald, Old English eald and Old Frisian ald, and also Dutch oud and English old.[2][5] North Germanic has only the comparative Old Norse ellri and the superlative, using gamall for “old”, while Gothic has a ja-stem Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌸𐌴𐌹𐍃 (alþeis).[2][4]

It is probably an old participle with a t-suffix of the verb seen in Gothic 𐌰𐌻𐌰𐌽 (alan, “to grow up”), Old Norse ala and Old English alan (“to nourish, bring up”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂el- (“to grow, nourish”), so that it first meant “grown, grown up”.[2][3][5] Kluge marks the derivation as probable, while Pfeifer, Duden and Kroonen give it without reservation.[2][3][6][5] Latin altus (“high”), properly “grown tall”, the participle of alō (“to nourish”), is a parallel formation, and Kroonen adds Old Irish alt (“height, cliff”).[2][3][5] The Gothic and Norse forms with a th-sound point to stress on the root in the comparative, which also explains the umlaut and consonant of Eltern, properly “the older ones”.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German alt is recorded from glosses of about 765 and in the Hildebrandslied, Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “old”, “worn out”, “former, past” and “handed down from old times”; the plural alte could mean “parents”, and diu alta ēwa was the Old Testament.[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Paul takes the oldest sense to be “of a certain age”, as in zwei Jahre alt (formerly with the genitive, eines Frühlings alt in Klopstock), and then “of great age”, opposed to jung.[10] Pfeifer finds all three main senses, “aged”, “former” and “long existing”, already fully developed in Old High German.[3] The Grimms note that Gothic distinguished “old” opposed to “young” (alþeis) from “old” opposed to “new”, which used another word, a difference that German blurred early.[11]

Since the 18th century alt has also expressed familiarity in alter Freund, altes Haus, and in colloquial northern German it stresses something annoying, as in alter Angeber.[10] As a noun der Alte became a name for a boss and, familiarly, for one's father or husband, die Alten for parents, and in the 18th century die Alten were the Greeks and Romans.[10] Alt, the singing voice, is a separate borrowing of Italian alto from the related Latin word.[2][3]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German alt appears in glosses.[7]
  • c. 800 – altlīh, the source of ältlich, is recorded.[3]
  • 8th century – firaltēn, the source of veralten, is recorded.[3]
  • 14th century – Altmeister “experienced old master” appears.[3]
  • Early 18th century – altklug “precocious” is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Old, aged: no longer young, of advanced age: ein alter Hund, alt werden.[12][1]
  2. Of a given age: Wie alt bist du?, ein drei Monate altes Fohlen.[12]
  3. Not new, long used, worn: alte Schuhe, alte Bücher.[12][1]
  4. Not fresh: altes Brot.[12]
  5. Long existing, established: eine alte Tradition, alte Freunde.[12]
  6. From an earlier time, ancient: die alten Griechen, alte Meister.[12][1]
  7. Former, previous: mein alter Lehrer, die alte Adresse.[12][13]

Word family

  • Ältester
  • Welt
  • Alt
  • Alimente
  • English old

Usage notes

Alt und grau werden “to wait a very long time” goes back to 1 Samuel 12:2, and nicht alt werden (colloquial) means “not to stay long”.[12][10] Alt und Jung means “everybody”.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 35
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 1, 171
  5. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 90
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 33
  9. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de
  10. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 262
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org