Etymologically
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antreten

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈanˌtʁeːtən/[1]

Forms

antreten (class 5 strong, third-person singular present tritt an, past tense trat an, past participle angetreten, past subjunctive träte an, auxiliary haben or sein)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German anetreten (“to begin; fall due”), a compound of the particle an and the verb meaning “to tread”.[2][3][4][5] That verb is Old High German tretan, from Proto-West Germanic *tredan, a strong verb also found in Old English tredan, the source of English tread, and in Old Frisian treda.[5][6] Beside it stands a form with another vowel, Proto-Germanic *trudaną, in Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (trudan) and Old Norse troða.[5][6][1] Kluge finds no exact comparison outside Germanic and takes the verb to be originally imitative, like trappen and trampeln.[5] Pfeifer suggests instead a participle Proto-Indo-European *druto- of a root Proto-Indo-European *dreu- (“to run, tread”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Middle High German the verb is intransitive and means “to begin”, of things in space and time: a 13th-century text on degrees of kinship, compared to the limbs of the body, says where each degree “tritt an”, and the early 14th-century Hester has “nû ist die zît an getreten” (“now the time has come”).[2] Köbler adds the senses “to belong to, fall to someone” and “to fall due”, of a rent, from a charter of 1286.[3]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, stepping up to a place or a person, is recorded only from the 16th century.[2] In that period it often meant to attack, “to step against” an enemy or a wild animal, as in Hans Sachs and Sebastian Franck.[7] Into the 19th century it could also mean to approach someone with a request, as in Lessing, Musäus and Kleist; this is now dated.[8][7]

The intransitive sense “to take one's place” gave the military order Angetreten! (“fall in!”) and Goethe's line nach dem Gesetz, wonach du angetreten in Urworte.[8] Transitive ein Amt, eine Reise, ein Erbe antreten “to take up, set out on, enter upon” is the modern main use.[9][8] Sport added the sense “to start a sprint”, and grammar speaks of a suffix that tritt an “is added”.[8]

Timeline

  • 13th century – anetreten “to begin” is recorded.[2]
  • 1286 – A charter uses it of a rent falling due.[3]
  • c. 1480 – It means “to come into force”, of an ordinance.[2]
  • 16th century – The literal and combative senses appear.[2][7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (with haben) To tread down and firm up soil: die Erde um den jungen Baum antreten.[9][1]
  2. (with haben) To kick-start an engine: Er trat sein Moped an.[9][1]
  3. (sport, with sein) To begin a sprint.[9][8]
  4. (with sein) To line up, fall in; to stand for a muster: Die Feuerwehr ist auf dem Hof angetreten.[9][1]
  5. (sport, politics, with sein) To compete, to stand: gegen jemanden antreten.[9][1]
  6. (with sein) To report for something, to present oneself; to take up one's duties: Sie ist um sieben Uhr zur Schicht angetreten.[9]
  7. (with haben) To set out on or begin something: eine lange Fahrt antreten.[9][1]
  8. (with haben) To take over or succeed to: die Nachfolge des Vaters antreten.[9][1]
  9. (linguistics, with sein) To be added: an ending tritt an the stem.[9][8]
  10. (elevated, with haben) To come upon, approach someone.[9]

Word family

  • Antritt

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 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. 3, 44
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  4. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 929
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 505
  8. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag