befinden

Forms

befinden (class 3 strong, third-person singular present befindet, past tense befand, past participle befunden, past subjunctive befände, auxiliary haben)^[1] The vowel of the plural past tense was levelled to that of the singular at the end of Early New High German, though befund for befand still occurs in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[2] Weak past forms such as befindete are also found in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bevinden, inherited from Old High German bifindan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *bifinþan, a prefixed form from German be- + finden.^[3][1][4] The same verb is Old Saxon bifindan, Old Frisian bifinda, Middle Dutch bevinden and Dutch bevinden.^[3][2]

The base verb continues Proto-Germanic *finþaną (“to find”).^[5][1] Kluge finds no certain comparison outside Germanic, at best a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *pet- (“to fly, fall”), while Wiktionary derives it from *pent- (“to go, pass”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a gloss of the end of the 8th century, pifundan for Latin nactus “found”.^[2][6] In the Isidor, Otfrid and Notker bifindan means “to find out, learn, discover”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Like finden, the prefixed verb was used early for mental perception: Old and Middle High German “to find, experience, get to know”, and since Early New High German also “to notice, establish”.^[4][9] From this came the use with a predicative adjective, “to consider, judge”, as in für gut befinden (Wieland).^[9][10] Since the early 20th century über etwas befinden has meant “to decide on something”.^[10]

Reflexive sich befinden first meant “to find oneself in a state”, as in sich wohl befinden, and around 1600 it took on the local sense “to be present somewhere”, like French se trouver.^[4][9][10] The noun Befinden meant inner perception in Tauler in the 14th century, “judgement, opinion” mainly from the 18th, and is now chiefly “state of health”.^[11][12] Befund “findings” and befindlich “present, situated” date from the 17th century.^[4]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – A gloss has pifundan “found”.^[2]
• Mid-14th century – Tauler uses the noun bevinden for inner perception.^[11]
• c. 1600 – Reflexive sich befinden takes on the sense “to be somewhere”.^[4]
• 17th century – Befund and befindlich appear.^[4]
• 1768 – The weak past befindete is recorded.^[2]
• Early 20th century – über etwas befinden “to decide on something” comes into use.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. Reflexive: to be located, to be in a place: die Toiletten befinden sich im ersten Stock.^[12][1]
2. Reflexive (formal): to be in a certain state or situation: sich im Irrtum befinden “to be mistaken”.^[12]
3. Reflexive (formal): to feel, be in a certain state of health: sich wohl befinden.^[12][13]
4. (formal) To consider, deem: etwas für richtig befinden, jemanden für schuldig befinden.^[12][1]
5. (formal) To state as one's opinion: der Gutachter befand, das Haus sei baufällig.^[12]
6. (chiefly official) With über, to decide on something: der Rat befindet über den Antrag.^[12][10]

Word family

• Befinden
• befindlich
• Befund
• Befindlichkeit

Related words

• finden
• empfinden
• erfinden

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 4, 502
3. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 102
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 Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 295
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 103
8. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 135
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b 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, 507
12. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf