betreffen

Forms

betreffen (class 4 strong, third-person singular present betrifft, past tense betraf, past participle betroffen, past subjunctive beträfe, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is a prefixed verb from German be- + treffen, formed in Early New High German.^[2][1] The Grimms found no Old or Middle High German form of the verb,^[3] though the simple verb Old High German treffan could already mean “to concern, apply to”.^[4][5] That verb is treffen, from Proto-Germanic *drepaną (“to strike”), also in Old Saxon drepan, Old English drepan (“to strike, kill”) and Old Norse drepa (“to strike, kill”); it has no certain cognates outside Germanic.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the 16th century betreffen meant “to meet with, catch in the act”.^[7][2] The Early New High German dictionary records “to concern, relate to” as its best-attested sense, beside “to strike”, “to catch, overtake” and “to amount to”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Paul distinguishes three senses: “to catch in a deed”, common until the 19th century, as in Goethe's ich hab ihn selber betroffen über der That;^[2][3] “to befall” (of misfortune); and “to concern”, especially in the chancery style, with was mich betrifft.^[2][3] From the last came Betreff in the 18th century, first the heading stating what a document is about.^[2] The participle betroffen “dismayed” goes back, from the 18th century, to the sense “to befall”, and in recent decades die Betroffenen are the people affected by a decision.^[7][2]

Timeline

• 16th century – betreffen “to meet with, catch in the act”.^[7]
• 18th century – betroffen “dismayed”; the noun Betreff.^[7][2]
• 19th century – The sense “to catch in the act” goes out of use.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To concern, apply to, have to do with: Die neue Regel betrifft alle Schüler.;^[9][1] was mich betrifft, as for me.^[9][1]
2. (elevated) To befall: Ein schweres Unwetter hat die Region betroffen.^[9]
3. (elevated) To affect deeply, dismay.^[9]
4. (dated) To meet with, catch: jemanden bei einer Lüge betreffen.^[9][1]

Word family

• Betreff
• betreffend
• betreffs
• betroffen
• Betroffenheit

Related words

• treffen
• übertreffen
• zutreffen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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, 1710
4. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 335
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 927
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag