bestimmt

Forms

bestimmt (strong nominative masculine singular bestimmter, not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of the verb bestimmen, used as an adjective “fixed, decided” since the 15th century and as an adverb “certainly” since about 1800.^[2][3] The verb goes back to Middle High German bestimmen, formed with be- from stimmen (“to name; to fix, settle”), a derivative of Stimme “voice”; it first meant “to name or fix with one's voice”, then generally “to order, decree”.^[2][3][4][5]

Kluge and Pfeifer date the verb to the 15th century, while Köbler already lists a Middle High German record from about 1173.^[3][2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer dates the participial adjective, in the sense “fixed, decided”, to the 15th century.^[2] The underlying verb meant “to name, designate” in the Middle High German poem Anegenge of about 1173,^[6] and the simple verb stimmen could mean “to fix”, as in ein zît gestimmet was (“a time had been fixed”) in the Middle High German life of Saint Elizabeth.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In the philosophical and scientific language of the 18th century, following Christian Wolff, bestimmen came to mean “to define, determine exactly”, and bestimmt accordingly “precisely defined, definite”.^[3][7][4] From this came the use of ein bestimmter for something definite that the speaker does not name,^[7] and the grammatical term bestimmter Artikel “definite article”.^[8] The participle also expressed destiny, as in füreinander bestimmt “meant for each other”, which Paul quotes from Leisewitz.^[7] The Grimms' dictionary quotes Klopstock's Messias with the sense “destined”.^[9]

Around 1800 bestimmt became a fashionable word of certainty, and Campe records ganz bestimmt “quite certainly” in 1807.^[7] Applied to people it means “firm, decided”, comparable with French décidé.^[7] English musicians took it over as a performance direction meaning “with decision”.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1173 – Middle High German bestimmen “to name” is recorded in the Anegenge.^[6]
• 15th century – The participle bestimmt is used as an adjective “fixed, decided”.^[2]
• 18th century – bestimmen takes on the sense “to define” in philosophical language.^[3][4]
• c. 1800 – bestimmt comes into use as an adverb “certainly”.^[2][7]
• 1807 – Campe records ganz bestimmt.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Certain, particular: known to those concerned but not described more closely: Er sucht ein bestimmtes Hemd.^[8][1]
2. Clearly fixed or defined, precise: Sie hat eine bestimmte Vorstellung davon.^[8][11]
3. (grammar) definite: der bestimmte Artikel.^[8][1]
4. Intended or destined for someone or something: Der Brief war für ihre Schwester bestimmt.^[11][7]
5. Firm, decided, resolute: Sie lehnte das Angebot freundlich, aber bestimmt ab.^[8][1]

Adverb

1. Certainly, definitely, surely: Das Paket kommt bestimmt morgen.^[8][1]

Word family

• Bestimmtheit
• unbestimmt

Related words

• bestimmen
• Bestimmung
• Stimme
• stimmen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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 d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 115
4. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 1199
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1679
10. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org