Etymologically
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belegen

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Pronunciation

  • /bəˈleːɡən/, [-ɡŋ̩][1]

Forms

belegen (third-person singular present belegt, past tense belegte, past participle belegt, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German belegen, inherited from Old High German bileggen (“to cover, surround”), formed from Old High German bi- + leggen (“to lay”).[2][3] The base verb is the causative of liggen (“to lie”) (modern legen and liegen).[2] The same formation is Old Saxon bileggian, Middle Low German beleggen, Middle Dutch beleggen, Old Frisian bilegga and Old English belecgan, and the English cognate is belay.[2][1]

Kluge traces the senses from “to put on something” to figurative uses such as confirming something by oath, and then to the main modern sense “to prove”, with the noun Beleg.[4] He suggests that beilegen and Beilage, the enclosing of evidence, may have helped shape this meaning.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German bileggen appears in glosses from 765, meaning “to cover, overlay, fit with, stuff”.[3] An 8th-century gloss renders Latin ferrata carpenta with isarne pilegita uuagana “carts covered with iron”.[5]

Semantic evolution

Pfeifer explains that the verb first described covering or clothing something for decoration or protection.[2] Middle High German and Middle Low German added “to occupy, besiege” and “to prove by testimony”, and Middle Low German and Early New High German “to mate with” (still said of animals).[2] Luther's Bible often has belegen “to besiege”, literally “to lay troops around a town”, and the modern euphemism mit Bomben belegen “to bomb” continues it.[6] The older legal language used it for imposing a charge and for investing money.[2][7]

In 16th-century mining a mine was belegt when it was staffed with workers, which gave rise to Belegschaft in the first half of the 19th century, first the miners of a pit and now the whole staff of a firm.[2] The sense “to prove by written evidence” is recorded from the 17th century, with Beleg “proof, piece of evidence” from 1711 and the older synonym Belag from 1673.[6]

Timeline

  • 765 – Old High German bileggen appears in glosses.[3]
  • 1060–1080 – Middle High German belegen is used in the Vienna Genesis.[8][5]
  • 16th century – Mining use: to staff a mine with workers.[2]
  • 17th century – The sense “to prove by written evidence” appears.[6]
  • 1673 – Belag is recorded in the sense “proof”.[6]
  • 1711 – Beleg is first recorded.[6]
  • First half of the 19th century – Belegschaft is formed.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To cover something with something, put a layer or topping on it: die Terrasse mit Steinplatten belegen, ein Brot mit Käse belegen.[9][1]
  2. (military) To bombard: eine Brücke mit Artillerie belegen.[9][1]
  3. To reserve a place, to enrol for a course: Sie hat einen Spanischkurs belegt.[9][1]
  4. (sports) To take a place in a ranking: Die Läuferin belegte den dritten Platz.[9]
  5. To occupy, fill (rooms, beds): Das Krankenhaus ist voll belegt.[9][1]
  6. To impose something on someone: jemanden mit einer Geldstrafe belegen.[9]
  7. To document, prove with evidence: Er konnte seine Ausgaben mit Quittungen belegen.[9][1]
  8. Of a male animal: to mate with a female.[1][6]

Word family

  • Belag
  • Beleg
  • Belegschaft
  • Belegung

Usage notes

A separate participle belegen “situated”, from the strong verb beliegen, was used by Klopstock and Kant (ein an der Gasse belegenes Haus); the Grimms note that gelegen was already preferred.[10] A belegte Stimme is a husky voice.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  4. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 108
  5. ^ 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, 927
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1442