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Etymology and origin of the German word bewegen

The strong verb bewegen (bewog, bewogen) and the weak bewegen (bewegte, bewegt) have been used side by side without a clear division of meaning since Old High German.[1][2] The modern split, with the strong forms for “induce” and the weak ones for “move”, was reached only in New High German.[1][3]

bewegen1 induce, persuade

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
late 8th century, Old High German glosses
Inherited from
Middle High German bewëgen
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*weǵʰ-)

Pronunciation

  • /bəˈveːɡən/[4]

Forms

bewegen (class 4 strong, third-person singular present bewegt, past tense bewog, past participle bewogen, past subjunctive bewöge, auxiliary haben)[4]

Etymology

The verb meaning “induce” is inherited from Middle High German bewëgen, formed from Old High German bi- + wegan (“to weigh, move”).[5][1][4] The simple verb continues Proto-Germanic *weganą (“to move, carry; to weigh”), whose descendants in modern German are wägen and wiegen.[5][4] Kluge notes that its present tense now looks weak, since its vowel continues an umlauted ⟨a⟩.[5]

The same strong verb is Old Saxon wegan (“to weigh”), Old English wegan (“to move, carry, weigh”), Old Norse vega (“to swing, lift, weigh”) and Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (gawigan, “to move, shake”), and English weigh continues the Old English word.[1][2] It belongs to the root Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move, carry, travel”), also found in Sanskrit वहति (váhati, “drives, carries”), Latin vehō (“to carry, convey”), Russian везти (veztí, “to carry”) and Lithuanian vèžti (“to drive, carry”).[1][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German biwegan is first recorded in glosses of the last quarter of the 8th century, meaning “to move, roll, weigh up, consider”.[6][7] The revised Grimm dictionary gives as its earliest record a gloss of the 8th or 9th century rendering Latin perpendat “let him weigh up”.[8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the reflexive sich bewegen meant “to renounce, turn away from” and “to resolve on something”: in Hartmann's Erec (about 1185) a lady quickly makes up her mind to take one of two men as her husband.[1][8] The sense “to weigh up, judge” lasted into the 17th century and then died out.[8] Between the 17th and the 19th century the strong verb narrowed to “induce”, a sense that had really belonged to the weak verb, because its other meanings passed to other verbs such as erwägen.[5][8] Paul quotes Adelung's Was mich am meisten dazu bewog, war dieses (“what most induced me to it was this”).[9]

The old participle bewogen also meant “well disposed”, now gewogen;[10] Swedish and Danish took this word over from German.[10] Beweggrund “motive” appeared at the beginning of the 18th century, as a German rendering of Motiv.[9]

Timeline

  • Late 8th century – Old High German biwegan appears in glosses.[6][8]
  • About 1185 – Hartmann's Erec uses sich bewegen “to resolve on”.[8]
  • 17th century – The sense “weigh up” dies out.[8]
  • Early 18th century – Beweggrund “motive” is formed.[9]
  • 17th to 19th century – The strong verb narrows to “induce”.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To induce, persuade or prompt someone to do something (past bewog, participle bewogen): Was hat ihn bewogen, die Stadt zu verlassen?[4][3][9]

Word family

  • Beweggrund

bewegen2 move

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
12th century, Old High German glosses
Inherited from
Middle High German bewegen
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European (*weǵʰ-)

Pronunciation

  • /bəˈveːɡən/[4]

Forms

bewegen (third-person singular present bewegt, past tense bewegte, past participle bewegt, auxiliary haben)[4]

Etymology

The verb meaning “move” is inherited from Middle High German bewegen, formed from Old High German bi- + weggen (“to set in motion”).[5][1][11] Wiktionary already reconstructs the prefixed form for Proto-West Germanic, as *biwaggjan.[4] Since it had the sense “change position” from the start, like the simple weak verb, Kluge takes it as a prefixed form of that verb rather than a derivative of the strong prefixed verb.[5]

The simple weak verb is the causative of the strong wegan (“to weigh, move”); the same causative is Old English wecgan (“to move, drive”) and Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌲𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wagjan, “to shake, move”).[1][2] Both verbs go back to the root Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move, carry, travel”), which also gave Weg, Wagen, Woge and Wiege.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German biweggen is recorded in glosses of the 12th century, meaning “to move, excite, stir, attack”; one renders Latin commotus “stirred” with biwegit.[6][11] In Middle High German the Exodus poem (about 1120–1130) already uses it of rousing feelings: got het er beweget, “he had moved God”.[11]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning the weak verb meant both moving something and moving someone inwardly, and also “to cause” and, reflexively, “to decide”, so that the two verbs overlapped.[5][11] The Grimms point out that Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (wigan) and wagjan already met in meaning, so it is no wonder the German forms ran into one another.[10] By the 16th century at the latest bewegen had taken over the function of the simple weak verb wegen.[5]

Luther's Bible has Die Erde bebete vnd ward bewegt (“the earth shook and trembled”, 2 Samuel 22:8) for physical movement, and Maria aber behielt alle diese wort / vnd beweget sie in jrem hertzen (“Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart”, Luke 2:19) for turning something over in the mind.[9] The noun Bewegung, Old High German biwegunga, later also meant “uproar”;[1] Goethe used it of the French Revolution, and under the influence of French mouvement it came to name political currents in the 19th and 20th centuries, as in Arbeiterbewegung.[1] Swedish beveka and Danish bevæge were borrowed from the German verb.[12]

Timeline

  • About 1120–1130 – The Middle High German Exodus uses bewegen of stirring feelings.[11]
  • 12th century – Old High German biweggen and biwegunga appear in manuscripts of glosses.[6][1]
  • 16th century – Bewegen takes over the role of the simple verb wegen.[5]
  • 19th and 20th centuries – Bewegung names political movements.[1]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To move something, to change its position (past bewegte, participle bewegt): Der Sturm bewegte die Äste der Pappel.[13][4]
  2. (reflexive) To move, not to stay still; to go somewhere, change place steadily: Die Erde bewegt sich um die Sonne.[13][4]
  3. (reflexive) To take exercise; also to exercise an animal: Nach dem Essen sollte man sich ein wenig bewegen.[13][4]
  4. (reflexive) To behave, to move in certain circles: Sie bewegt sich sicher auf dem diplomatischen Parkett.[13]
  5. To move someone emotionally, to touch: Der Brief hat sie tief bewegt.[13][4]
  6. To occupy someone's mind: Diese Frage bewegt ihn seit Jahren.[13][14]

Word family

  • Bewegung
  • beweglich
  • fortbewegen
  • weiterbewegen
  • zurückbewegen
  • wägen
  • wiegen
  • Waage
  • erwägen
  • unentwegt
  • English weigh

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  2. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 146
  3. ^ a b c Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 118
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 375
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 5, 85
  9. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ 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, 1768
  11. ^ a b c d e 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. 5, 86
  12. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1771
  13. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  14. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org

Derived terms

Related etymologies

  • dass · also from Old High German
  • nach · also from Old High German
  • können · also from Old High German
  • dieser · also from Old High German
  • bei · also from Old High German
  • als · also from Old High German
  • auch · also from Old High German
  • er · also from Old High German
Cite this entry

“Bewegen.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/de/bewegen. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·