besonders

Forms

besonders^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German besunder (“apart, separately; excellent”) with an adverbial /-s/, a fusion of unstressed bī (“by”) (now bei) and the adjective and adverb sunder (“apart, set aside, special”), now sonder.^[2][3][4] The /-s/ has been added since Early New High German, on the model of adverbs that come from genitives, and Wahrig and the Duden date the form with it to the 16th century.^[2][4][5] A Middle High German sunders with the same ending already existed, as the Grimms note.^[3][6]

The base sunder continues Old High German suntar (“apart, by itself”), also found in Old Saxon sundar, Old English sundor, Old Norse sundr and, with another ending, Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌽𐌳𐍂𐍉 (sundro, “apart, alone”).^[7][8] Outside Germanic it is compared with an Old Indic adverb meaning “away, aside”, with Ancient Greek ἄτερ (áter, “without”) and, without the /t/ suffix, Latin sine (“without”) and Old Irish sain (“special, different”).^[7]

The attributive adjective besondere grew up beside the adverb: it replaced the simple adjective from late Middle High German times, influenced by the older adverb.^[2][5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates the word to the 15th century, as Middle High German besunder “apart, singly, excellently”.^[2][3] The base sunder meant “set apart, alone, special, outstanding” and, as an adverb, “separately, in particular, very”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

The old spatial sense “apart, separately” is frequent in Luther's Bible, where Abraham sets seven lambs apart (besonders) and Jesus takes the disciples aside (besonders).^[6] Adelung, around 1800, regarded such biblical uses as more Upper German than High German, and gave the main sense as “above all, more than others”.^[10] He also noted that the meaning changes with the position of the word: placed before a phrase it singles out one thing among others, placed before an adjective it intensifies it.^[10]

The Grimms called the sense “especially, chiefly” the quite usual one in their time.^[6] In modern German the word also intensifies adjectives and, in colloquial speech, verbs, and is often used with a negative, as in nicht besonders “not particularly”.^[11] A regional use for “odd, strange” is also recorded.^[11][12]

Timeline

• 15th century – Middle High German besunder is recorded as an adverb.^[2][4]
• 15th century – The noun Besonderheit appears, according to Pfeifer.^[3]
• 16th century – The form with the adverbial -s becomes established.^[4][5]
• 1793 – Adelung records the senses “apart” and “above all”.^[10]
• 18th century – Besonderheit appears, according to the Duden.^[5]

Meanings

Adverb

1. separately, by itself: Diese Frage behandeln wir später besonders.^[11][1]
2. especially, above all, particularly: Besonders im Winter fehlt ihr das Licht.^[11][1]
3. Expressly, with emphasis: etwas besonders betonen.^[11][12]
4. (intensifying) Very, exceptionally: besonders schwer.^[11] With a negative it means “not very, not much”: Das Essen war nicht besonders.^[11][1]
5. (regional) odd, strange.^[11][12]

Word family

• besondere
• Besonderheit

Related words

• sonder
• sondern
• bei

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 114
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1633
7. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 858
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, p. 2, 1305
10. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org