an

Forms

an^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ane, inherited from Old High German ana, inherited from Proto-Germanic *ana.^[2][1][3] The same word is Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌰 (ana), Old Norse á, Old English on, Old Frisian on and Old Saxon an,^[2][4][5] and it survives as Dutch aan, English on and Swedish å.^[2] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ana, as do Ancient Greek ἀνά (aná, “on, up, along”) and Avestan ana (“over, along”).^[2][5][6] Pfeifer and the revised Grimm add Sanskrit अनु (ánu, “after, along”), Old Church Slavonic на (na) and Russian на (na, “on, at”), which lost the first syllable, and the prefix of Latin anhēlō (“to pant”), and set up Indo-European forms meaning “up along, towards”.^[4][7]

Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Indo-European *h₂én (“up, on high”); the final vowel of the Germanic form is disputed, and Kroonen explains it from a pre-Germanic form with a laryngeal.^[1] Pfeifer thinks the original sense was “upwards”, which can hardly be seen in Germanic except in words like bergan “uphill” and himmelan “heavenwards”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German ana is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses of about 765.^[2][8][9] It is used in the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli, Otfrid and Notker as a preposition with the dative, accusative and instrumental, meaning “on, in, at, after, over, by, to, from, concerning”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The preposition first expressed contact in space.^[11] Middle High German and Early New High German could still say an dem Grase sitzen “to sit on the grass”, where auf is now used;^[11] an der Küste “on the coast” and ans Land “ashore” are remnants of the older use.^[11] As a free adverb an was replaced by heran and hinan, but it lives on in separable verbs such as ankommen, in anbei, voran and fortan, and in short phrases such as das Licht ist an “the light is on”.^[4][11][6] The phrase von … an “from … on” is Early New High German.^[11]

In Upper German, especially Bavarian and Austrian, the vowel has long been pronounced long; spellings such as ân (1292) and ahn (16th to 18th century) show this, and Adelung noted it in 1774.^[7] The contracted forms am and ans became frequent from Early New High German on.^[7] Words formed from an include ahnen and ähnlich.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German ana appears in glosses.^[8]
• 1060–1065 – Middle High German ane is used in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs.^[12]
• 1292 – The spelling ân in a charter points to a long vowel.^[7]
• 1543 – The spelling ahn appears, used until the 18th century.^[7]
• 1774 – Adelung notes that Upper Germans pronounce the word long, as if written ahn.^[7]

Meanings

Preposition

1. With the accusative: to, against, onto; marking direction towards a place or person: die Leiter an den Baum lehnen “to lean the ladder against the tree”, ein Paket an jemanden schicken “to send someone a parcel”.^[13][1]
2. With the dative: at, on, by; marking position, proximity or contact: Trier liegt an der Mosel “Trier is on the Moselle”.^[13][1]
3. With the dative: on; marking a point in time: an einem Wintermorgen “on a winter morning”;^[13][1] (southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland) an Ostern “at Easter”.^[13][1]
4. Marking a relation to an object, without a sense of space or time: of, on, in, about: an einer Krankheit sterben “to die of an illness”, an jemanden glauben “to believe in someone”.^[13][1]
5. After bis, with the accusative: up to, until: bis an die Knie “up to the knees”.^[13]

Adverb

1. (transport) Arriving: Frankfurt an 17.30 “arriving at Frankfurt 17.30”.^[13]
2. With von: from … on: von jetzt an “from now on”.^[13][11]
3. (colloquial) switched on, alight: das Licht ist an.^[11][9]

Word family

• am
• ans
• heran
• hinan
• anbei
• voran
• fortan
• bergan
• ahnen
• ähnlich

Related words

• English on

Usage notes

An sich or an und für sich means “in itself, actually”, an sich halten “to restrain oneself with difficulty”, and es ist an jemandem, etwas zu tun “it is up to someone to do something”.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 41
3. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 1, 213
4. ^ a b c d 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 Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b c d e f 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, 714
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 34
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag