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bedeuten

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Pronunciation

  • /bəˈdɔɪ̯tn̩/, /bəˈdɔɪ̯tən/[1]

Forms

bedeuten (third-person singular present bedeutet, past tense bedeutete, past participle bedeutet, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bediuten, inherited from Old High German bidiuten (“to express, signify”), formed from German be- + deuten.[2][3][1] The same formation is Middle Low German bedǖden, Middle Dutch bedieden, Dutch beduiden and Old Frisian bithiōda; Swedish betyda and Danish betyde were taken from Middle Low German.[2][4]

The base verb, Old High German diuten, often meant “to say in the vernacular” in the old language, and was associated with diot (“people”) (compare deutsch).[5] Pfeifer and Wiktionary derive it from Proto-Germanic *þeudō (“people”), making its first sense “to explain to the people, make understandable”; that noun is Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“people, land”).[3][1] Kluge doubts that the verb can be a semantic derivative of the word for people, pointing to Old English ġeþēodan (“to translate”) and Old Norse þýða (“to interpret”).[5] He notes that the base of the adjective also meant “strength”, and that strength often gives words for meaning, as in Ancient Greek δύναμις (dúnamis, “power; meaning”) and Latin vīs (“force; meaning”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German bidiuten occurs only once, in a gloss to the Old Testament of the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century, rendering Latin comprehendere in the sense “to express, signify”: the seven fat cows and full ears in Pharaoh's dream peduten seven years of plenty (Genesis 41:26).[2][6][4]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German bediuten meant to indicate, make understandable and interpret, to announce or make known, to judge, and to bring someone to reason; reflexive sich bediuten was “to mean, be understood”.[7][3] From the early 12th century it is used of dreams and omens that point to the future: Konrad von Würzburg asks waz mac bediuten dirre troum? “what may this dream mean?”.[4] Early New High German used it constantly of the sense of words and names: Geiler von Kaysersberg explains what a name or a Latin word bedeutet in German.[8]

The senses “to give someone to understand” (with the dative) and “to instruct, set someone right” (with the accusative) were common in the 18th century, in Goethe, Schiller, Wieland and Klinger;[9][10] Adelung lists the second first.[9][10] They are now literary or dated.[11] The sense “to be important, matter” gave the present participle bedeutend, “significant”, in the 18th century, earlier “pointing to something, expressing something”.[3][9]

Timeline

  • Late 10th or early 11th century – Old High German peduten in a gloss to Genesis.[4][6]
  • c. 1120–1130 – The Millstatt Genesis asks what a dream bedoute.[4]
  • c. 1270–1275 – Konrad von Würzburg's Engelhard uses it of a dream.[4]
  • 18th century – bedeutend takes the sense “significant”.[3]
  • Late 18th century – The adjective bedeutsam appears.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To mean, signify: of a sign, word or symbol, to stand for a given content: Was bedeutet dieses Schild?[11][1]
  2. To entail, amount to, have as a consequence.[11]
  3. To be or constitute, when seen in a certain way: Das bedeutet ein großes Risiko.[11]
  4. To portend: to be a sign of something to come.[11][1]
  5. To matter, be important (to someone): Titel bedeuten ihr nichts.[11][1]
  6. (formal) To give someone to understand, to signal (with the dative).[11][1]
  7. (dated) To instruct or inform someone (with the accusative).[11][9]

Word family

Usage notes

The proverb Perlen bedeuten Tränen (“pearls mean tears”) says that a gift of pearls foretells sorrow;[11] GWDS traces the superstition to the 9th century.[11] Das hat nichts zu bedeuten is “that is of no importance”.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 699
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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. 4, 412
  5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 194
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 141
  8. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1225
  9. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 780
  11. ^ 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