bereit

Forms

bereit (strong nominative masculine singular bereiter, comparative bereiter, superlative am bereitesten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bereite, inherited from Old High German bireiti (“equipped, ready”), a formation with the prefix be- found only in German and Dutch.^[2][3][1] Beside it stand the unprefixed Old High German reiti and the form with another prefix gireiti.^[4][5] The adjective goes back to Proto-Germanic *raidaz (“ready, arranged”), also found in Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (garaiþs, “appointed”), Old English rǣde, English ready and Dutch bereid.^[4][3][1]

Pfeifer, Duden and Wahrig connect it with reiten in its old sense “to travel”, so that it first meant “equipped for the journey”, much as fertig belongs to fahren.^[4][3][6] They compare Old Irish réid (“level, easy”), Welsh rhwydd (“easy, free”) and Latvian raids (“ready”), from Proto-Indo-European *reydʰ- (“to ride, travel”).^[4][3] The revised Grimm dictionary calls this derivation uncertain,^[7] Wiktionary derives the Germanic adjective instead from Proto-Indo-European *h₂rey- (“to count, put in order”),^[1] and Duden notes that similar-sounding stems seem to have mixed early.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German bereit, bereite is recorded from the 12th century, among the first in Lamprecht's Alexander (1150–1170).^[2][8] It meant “ready, prepared, at hand”, of persons also “willing, eager”, and of money “in cash”.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the adverb bereite meant “quickly, readily” and also “already”; from the 16th century it took a genitive -s, giving bereits “already”, as English already was formed from ready.^[4][2][9] Duden dates the form with -s to the 17th century.^[3]

The adjective is now used only predicatively (bereit sein, bereit stehen).^[10] The derivative Bereitschaft first meant equipment; the general sense “readiness” is recorded from 1678, and it has also named a body of troops, later a police unit.^[10][3]

Timeline

• 12th century – Middle High German bereit is first recorded.^[2]
• c. 1150 – Der arme Hartmann uses bereite for “willing”.^[7]
• 16th century – The adverb bereits takes its -s.^[4]
• 1678 – Bereitschaft in the sense “readiness” is recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. bereit sein: to be ready, prepared: Das Essen ist bereit.^[11][1]
2. Willing, prepared to do something: Sie war bereit, ihm zu helfen.^[11][1]
3. In phrases: sich bereit halten “to stand by”, etwas bereit haben “to have something at hand”, sich bereit erklären “to agree, declare oneself willing”.^[11]

Word family

• bereits
• Bereitschaft
• bereitwillig
• bereiten

Related words

• reiten
• English ready

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 110
3. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 162
4. ^ a b c d e f g Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
7. ^ 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, 1012
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities
10. ^ a b c 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 c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag