bauen

Forms

bauen (third-person singular present baut, past tense baute, past participle gebaut, auxiliary haben)^[1] Beside the weak past participle gebaut, a strong gebauen (Middle High German gebouwen) lived on as a variant into Early New High German.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German būwen, inherited from Old High German būan (also būwan), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *būan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *būaną (“to dwell”).^[1][3][2] The same word is Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌿𐌰𐌽 (bauan, “to dwell”), Old Norse búa, Old English būan, Old Saxon būan and Dutch bouwen.^[3][4] The old verb meant “to dwell”; according to Kluge the modern sense “to build (a house)” is young, late Middle High German, and probably comes from a verb formed on Bau (Old High German bū (“dwelling”)) that merged with the older verbs.^[3][5] The Revised Grimm dictionary points out that the glosses already have the building sense.^[2]

The Germanic forms are hard to reconcile with one another.^[3][4] Kroonen explains *būan- and the Gothic form as ablaut grades of one root present,^[4] and Wiktionary derives the verb from the root aorist of Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to be, grow”).^[1] This is the root of “to become, be”, found in Latin fuī (“I was”), Lithuanian bū́ti (“to be”), Old Church Slavonic быти (byti, “to be”), Ancient Greek φύω (phúō, “I bring forth”) and Sanskrit भवति (bhávati, “becomes, is”), and in the German forms bin and bist.^[3][6][7] Pfeifer and Duden think the root first meant “to swell, thrive”, the same as that of Beule, but the Revised Grimm dictionary calls this connection disputed.^[6][7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German būan is recorded from the third quarter of the 8th century in the glosses (puuuit for Latin habitat “dwells”), and then in the Old Alemannic Psalms, Otfrid and Notker.^[8][2] It meant “to dwell, inhabit, live” and “to farm”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From “to settle, dwell” came the basic tasks of settlers: tilling the fields, putting up houses, making tools and winning ores.^[2] The sense “to dwell” was pushed back from Middle High German on and lasted only in some phrases until the 18th century;^[7][2] Adelung in 1787 listed bauen for wohnen among obsolete senses.^[7][2] The farming sense, as in den Acker bauen, passed largely to prefixed verbs such as anbauen and bebauen, and “to erect” became the main sense.^[6][7]

The figurative auf jemanden bauen “to rely on someone” and auf Sand bauen come from the Bible.^[7] erbauen “to edify” follows Church Latin aedificāre.^[6] Colloquially one can now also “build” an exam or an accident, and aufbauen “to build up (a person)” is a loan translation of English “build up”.^[7]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German būan “to dwell” appears in the glosses.^[8][3]
• 822–840 – Old Saxon būan is used in the Heliand.^[2]
• 14th century – bebauen “to till” is recorded.^[6]
• Late Middle High German – bauen takes the sense “to build a house”.^[3]
• 15th century – anbauen is recorded.^[6]
• 1787 – Adelung calls the sense “to dwell” obsolete.^[2]
• 20th century – aufbauen “to build up (a person)” is formed after English.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To build, construct according to a plan: houses, bridges, roads;^[10][1] die Amseln bauen ihr Nest in der Hecke.^[10][1]
2. To have a house built: unsere Nachbarn haben letztes Jahr gebaut.^[10]
3. To design or make machines, instruments, ships: eine Geige bauen.^[10][11]
4. With auf: to rely on someone or something.^[10][1]
5. (colloquial) To take (an exam); to cause (something bad): einen Unfall bauen, Mist bauen.^[10][1]
6. (rare) To grow crops: wheat, vegetables.^[10]
7. (slang) To roll (a joint).^[1]

Word family

• Bau
• Bauer
• Gebäude
• baufällig
• abbauen
• anbauen
• aufbauen
• ausbauen
• bebauen
• einbauen
• erbauen
• umbauen
• verbauen
• vorbauen
• Baustelle

Related words

• Anbau
• Bauten
• Nachbar
• bin
• Bude
• Physik
• Futur

Usage notes

Mist bauen is colloquial for making a mess of something.^[10] Auf Sand bauen, to build on sand, goes back to the Gospel parable.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. 4, 293
3. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 97
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ 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
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 154
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 63
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org