besondere

Forms

besondere (strong nominative masculine singular besonderer, comparative besonderer, superlative am besondersten)^[1]

Etymology

It is late Middle High German besunder, which took the place of the simple adjective sunder (“separate, own, distinguished”).^[2][3][4] The new adjective was shaped by the older adverb besunder (“separately, especially”), a fusion from Middle High German bī (“by”) + sunder (“apart”) with an unstressed first part.^[5][2][3] The adverb itself took an adverbial /-s/ in Early New High German and became besonders.^[5][3]

The base is Old High German suntar (“apart, separately”), the same word as Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍂𐍉 (sundrō, “apart, alone”), Old English sundor and Old Norse sundr.^[3][6] Pfeifer and the Duden dictionary connect it with Ancient Greek ἄτερ (áter, “without”) and Latin sine (“without”), from Proto-Indo-European *sn̥-tér (“apart, by itself”).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul gives “separated from others” as the first meaning, as in Luther's an einem besondern Ort.^[4] The Grimms quote early uses from the Shrovetide plays and Steinhöwel's Esopus, and Luther's Bible has ein besonder gelübde, a special vow.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From “separate” the word passed to “of a particular kind” (besondere Umstände) and finally to “unusual, outstanding”, as in Goethe's Blut ist ein ganz besondrer Saft.^[4] Adelung distinguishes the sense “belonging to one thing alone” from “standing out from others of its kind, for good or ill”, and notes that Upper German still used plain sonder.^[8] The simple adjective sonder was current until the 18th century and then gave way to besonder, surviving only in compounds such as Sonderdruck.^[3]

Timeline

• 1060–1080 – The Middle High German adverb besunder appears in the Vienna Genesis.^[9]
• 15th century – The adjective besunder and the noun Besonderheit are recorded.^[5][10][3]
• 16th century – The adverb takes the form besonders.^[2]
• 18th century – The simple adjective sonder goes out of use.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. separate, additional: ein besonderer Eingang für Lieferanten.^[11]
2. Not ordinary, unusual: Gab es besondere Vorfälle?^[11][1]
3. Outstanding, exceptional: mit besonderer Sorgfalt.^[11][1]

Word family

• Besonderheit
• insbesondere

Related words

• besonders
• sonder
• sondern
• English asunder

Usage notes

The adjective is used only attributively; in predicative use the adverb besonders takes its place, often in understatement: Das Essen war nicht besonders.^[4][2] Im Besonderen means “in particular”.^[11] A shortened form is besondre.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 143
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 114
6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 791
7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1631
8. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 915
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag