Etymologically
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auf

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Pronunciation

  • /aʊ̯f/, [ʔaʊ̯f][1]

Forms

auf[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ūf, inherited from Old High German ūf, inherited from Proto-Germanic *upp.[2][1][3] The same word is Old Saxon up, Old English up, Old Frisian up and Old Norse upp, and with a different ablaut grade Gothic 𐌹𐌿𐍀 (iup, “upwards”).[2][4][3] It survives as Dutch op and English up.[2] Within German it is related to ob, oben, offen and über.[4][5]

The long vowel of the Old High German form, the source of the modern diphthong, was at first only Upper German; the short vowel of the northern and North Sea Germanic languages also occurs in Old and Middle High German, and western Central German had up.[4][1] Kroonen explains the long vowel as a lengthening in a word of one syllable.[3]

Kluge compares Proto-Indo-European *upo, with similar meanings of place, in Sanskrit उप (úpa), Ancient Greek ὑπό (hupó) and, with an initial s-, Latin sub, and also Hittite upzi (“(the sun) rises”).[2][4][5] The consonant is the difficulty: the Germanic forms would need an Indo-European /b/, or must have escaped the consonant shift through gemination, while the related words with /b/ and /f/ show the regular development.[2][6] Sommer took the word for a sound gesture for a quick upward movement, which could explain the missing shift.[2] Kroonen derives the geminate from a locative Proto-Germanic *uppai, earlier Proto-Indo-European *up-noi.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German ūf is first recorded in the 8th century, in the Würzburg boundary descriptions, and then in glosses, Otfrid and Notker.[7][2] It was at first only an adverb of direction, meaning “up, upwards”.[8][9]

Semantic evolution

From an adverb meaning “up” the word became a preposition, and it came to express place as well as direction.[8][10] As a free adverb it has largely been replaced by herauf, hinauf and aufwärts,[5][8] but it is very common as the first part of separable verbs.[4] There it often marks the end of a state of rest (aufstehen “to stand up”, aufspringen “to jump up”), and the idea of rousing something led to the sense of stirring up, as in aufregen “to excite” and aufhetzen “to incite”.[8]

As a preposition it takes the dative for a position on a surface and the accusative for a movement onto it, a distinction Adelung already described in 1793.[11][12] Colloquially auf is also used as an adjective, “open”, taken from verbs such as aufmachen.[1][13]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German ūf appears in the Würzburg boundary descriptions.[7]
  • 1060–1065 – Middle High German ūf is used in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs.[14]
  • 1793 – Adelung describes auf as a preposition with the dative for rest and the accusative for movement.[11]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. With the dative: on, upon; marking a position on top of something, or a stay in a building or place: die Vase steht auf dem Tisch “the vase is on the table”, auf der Post arbeiten “to work at the post office”.[12][1]
  2. With the accusative: onto, to; marking movement to a surface, place or event: die Vase auf den Schrank stellen “to put the vase on the cupboard”, auf einen Ball gehen “to go to a ball”.[12][1]
  3. With the accusative, of time: for (a period): auf ein paar Tage verreisen “to go away for a few days”.[12][1]
  4. With the accusative: marking purpose, aim or responsibility.[1]
  5. With a language name: in (a language).[1]
  6. With the accusative: by, in giving dimensions.[1]

Adverb

  1. Up, upwards; today mostly part of separable verbs.[4][8]

Adjective

  1. (colloquial) open (only predicative).[1][13]

Word family

  • aufwärts
  • herauf
  • hinauf
  • darauf
  • vollauf

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. 71
  3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b c d e f 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ 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, 404
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 346
  10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 602
  11. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 467
  12. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling