bekommen

Forms

bekommen (class 4 strong, third-person singular present bekommt, past tense bekam, past participle bekommen, past subjunctive bekäme, auxiliary haben or sein)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bekomen, inherited from Old High German biqueman, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *bikweman, inherited from Proto-Germanic *bikwemaną (“to come near, come about”), a formation with the prefix be- on the strong verb kommen.^[2][1][3] The same formation is found in most Germanic languages, with very different senses: Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌵𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (biqiman, “to come upon, attack”), Old Saxon bikuman (“to come”), Old English becuman (“to happen, arrive”) and English become, and Dutch bekomen (“to receive; agree with”).^[4][5][3] Pfeifer compares Latin conveniō (“to come together, suit”) as a parallel.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German biqueman is first recorded in the Benedictine Rule (790–802) and Isidor, and then in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and the glosses.^[5][6][7] It meant “to come, approach, arrive”, “to befall, fall to someone's share”, “to suit, be pleasant, be of use” and “to recover”, and with the genitive “to get back”.^[7] The Freising Paternoster (9th century) already uses it in the sense “to result in”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The spatial sense “to come near, meet” lasted until the 17th century.^[4] From Old High German on the verb also meant “to obtain”, at first intransitively with the genitive, as in Otfrid, and often in Middle High German;^[2][4][3] Kluge derives this from “to fall to someone's share”, while the Duden dictionary dates the sense “to receive” to Middle High German.^[2][4][3] It then became transitive, standing in style between kriegen and erhalten.^[8]

Another line led to “to come forth, grow, thrive”, said of plants until the early 19th century, which led to “to agree with someone”, of food, air or medicine, as in the toast wohl bekomm's, which Frisch recorded in 1741.^[4][8][9] English become developed instead the sense “to come to be”.^[3][4] bekömmlich “wholesome” became usual only in the second half of the 19th century; the earlier bekommlich meant “suitable” and belongs with bequem.^[4][3] Compounds such as herausbekommen (18th century) and abbekommen (early 19th century) were formed with the sense “to get”.^[4]

Timeline

• 790–802 – Old High German biqueman appears in the Benedictine Rule.^[5]
• 9th century – The Freising Paternoster uses it in the sense “to result in”.^[4]
• 863–871 – Otfrid uses it in the sense “to obtain”.^[5][4]
• 16th century – The word is densely attested.^[5]
• 17th century – The sense “to come near, meet” dies out.^[4]
• 1741 – Frisch records wohl bekomme es as a toast.^[8]
• 18th century – herausbekommen is formed.^[4]
• Early 19th century – The sense “to grow, thrive” dies out;^[4] abbekommen appears.^[4]
• Second half of the 19th century – bekömmlich “wholesome” comes into use.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (auxiliary haben) To receive, get: einen Brief bekommen, eine Strafe bekommen.^[10][1]
2. (auxiliary haben) To develop, catch: eine Erkältung bekommen, Angst bekommen.^[10][1]
3. (auxiliary haben) To be due to have, expect: Wir bekommen morgen Besuch.^[10][11]
4. (auxiliary haben) With a past participle, forming the dative passive: etwas geliehen bekommen.^[8][1]
5. (auxiliary sein, with dative) To agree with someone: Der Wein ist ihm nicht bekommen.;^[8][1] wohl bekomm's!, cheers.^[8][1]

Word family

• bekömmlich
• abbekommen
• herausbekommen
• mitbekommen
• hinbekommen
• zurückbekommen

Related words

• kommen
• bequem
• English become

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 107
3. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 139
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 d e 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, 887
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 189
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. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1425
10. ^ a b c 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