beweisen

Forms

beweisen (class 1 strong, third-person singular present beweist, past tense bewies, past participle bewiesen, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bewīsen, a prefix derivation from German be- + weisen, with Middle Low German bewīsen and Dutch bewijzen beside it.^[2][3] It was a weak verb in Middle High German; strong forms appear in the 15th and 16th centuries and prevailed by the 17th, as in the simple verb.^[2][3][4] Kluge suggests that an older verb -wīzan (“to impute”) may have helped.^[2]

The base weisen, Middle High German wīsen, Old High German wīsen, continues Proto-Germanic *wīsijaną, as do Old Norse vísa and Old English wīsan.^[5] Kluge connects it with Proto-Indo-European *weyd- (“to see, know”), the root of wissen, though the morphology is unclear and he finds a derivation from weise unlikely;^[5][6] Duden derives it from that adjective.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The revised Grimms' dictionary quotes the Reimphysiologus of about 1120–1130, both for “to instruct”, in wer bewiset dich “who has taught you”, and for “to show to be true”, in what holy scripture wol chan bewisen “can well prove”.^[3] With a personal object the verb first meant “to direct, correct, teach”.^[2][7]

Semantic evolution

With an object of the thing, beweisen came to mean “to show, demonstrate”, and in legal language, from the producing of evidence, “to prove conclusively”; from there it passed into the language of science.^[2][7] Luther and Hans Sachs still used weak forms (er hat sich herlich beweiset), while in Switzerland and Alsace bewies was already usual.^[8] In older German it also meant to show feelings or favours towards someone, as in Schiller's Ihr habt dem Hut nicht Reverenz bewiesen, a use now replaced by erweisen.^[4][9]

The noun Beweis is a back-formation from the weak verb, found in 15th-century legal language and in Fischart, replacing older Beweisung;^[2][4] unter Beweis stellen “to demonstrate” is a recent phrase.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German wīsen is first recorded.^[5]
• c. 1120–1130 – The Reimphysiologus uses bewisen.^[3]
• 13th century – Kluge's date for the first record of bewīsen.^[2]
• 15th century – Strong forms begin, and Beweis appears in legal texts.^[2][4]
• 17th century – The strong past bewies becomes general.^[8][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prove, to show that something is true by arguments, evidence or witnesses: Der Anwalt konnte die Unschuld seiner Mandantin beweisen.;^[9][1] was zu beweisen war, the closing formula of a proof.^[9][1]
2. To show or display a quality: Sie hat bei der Rettung großen Mut bewiesen.^[9][1]
3. (reflexive) To prove oneself, to show one's abilities: Der junge Trainer will sich in der ersten Liga beweisen.^[9][1]
4. (reflexive) To turn out to be something.^[9]
5. (dated) To show respect or a favour to someone; now erweisen.^[9][4]

Word family

• Beweis
• beweisbar
• Beweisung

Related words

• weisen
• erweisen
• nachweisen
• wissen

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 i Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 118
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f 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 d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 980
6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 926
7. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1778
9. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag