anders

Forms

anders^[1] A form with an added -t, anderst, is found throughout Early New High German, rarely in the 14th and early 15th century and increasingly afterwards;^[2] Old High German anderest occurs only in Notker, and anderst survives in Central and Upper German dialects.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German anders, inherited from Old High German anderes, originally the genitive singular neuter of the adjective anderer, used as an adverb.^[3][4][5] The same formation is Old Frisian otheres.^[3]

The adjective is ander, from Proto-Germanic *anþeraz (“other”), the same word as Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌸𐌰𐍂 (anþar), Old Norse annarr, Old Saxon ōðar and Old English ōþer (now English other).^[6][4][7] It continues Proto-Indo-European *ánteros (“other”), also found in Sanskrit अन्तर (ántara, “other”) and Lithuanian añtras (“second, other”).^[6][1] Kluge explains it as a contrastive formation with the suffix *-teros from a pronominal stem that appears with another suffix in अन्य (anyá, “other”).^[6] Pfeifer and Duden name either the demonstrative particle *an (“there”) or the pronominal stem of jener as its base,^[4][8] and the EWA finds the link with that stem possible; it also quotes the view that its original sense was “the other of a pair”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German adverb anderes meant “otherwise, in another way, else”.^[9] It is first recorded in the Tatian (about 830), where anderes in zuouuarti hau in thana renders Luke 13:9, “otherwise cut it down”.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German anders meant “otherwise, else, besides”, and also “a second time”, a sense the Early New High German dictionary still records.^[10][11][2] With interrogatives and indefinites it means “else”: wer anders, wo anders were already used by Logau and Fleming.^[12] Adelung describes the conditional use after wenn (“if indeed”) and the answer nicht anders “just so”.^[13] In the German of Namibia anders is also used as an adjective meaning “different, strange”, under Afrikaans influence.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 830 – Old High German anderes in the Tatian.^[3]
• Early 11th century – Notker uses the form anderest.^[3]
• 12th–13th century – Middle High German anders in the Nibelungenlied, Hartmann, Wolfram and Gottfried.^[10]
• 15th century – anderst becomes increasingly common.^[2][10]

Meanings

Adverb

1. differently, in another way: Das hätte ich anders gemacht.^[5][1]
2. Different, unusual: Seit dem Urlaub wirkt er ganz anders.^[5]
3. Better, more pleasant: Mit etwas Glück wäre es anders ausgegangen.^[5]
4. With pronouns and adverbs: else: Wer anders hätte das tun können?^[5][1]
5. (colloquial) otherwise, or else: Beeil dich, anders verpassen wir den Zug.^[5][1]

Word family

• anderswo
• anderswohin
• andersartig

Related words

• anderer
• ändern
• anderthalb
• English other

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
3. ^ 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, 808
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 c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 43
7. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 1, 241
8. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 95
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 56
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 311
13. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
14. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org