Etymologically
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bezahlen

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Pronunciation

  • /bəˈtsaːlən/, [bəˈt͡saː.lən][1]

Forms

bezahlen (third-person singular present bezahlt, past tense bezahlte, past participle bezahlt, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bezaln, from German be- + zahlen.[2][1][3] The same formation is Middle Low German betālen, Middle Dutch betalen (now Dutch betalen) and Old Frisian bitalia, and Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-West Germanic *bitalōn (“to account for, settle accounts, pay”).[3][1] It corresponds to Danish betale and Swedish betala.[4][1]

The simple verb, Old High German zalōn “to count, reckon”, is a denominative of Zahl “number”, zala, and since the 17th century has been specialised to paying a debt, properly “counting out coins”.[5][2] The noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *talō (“speech, number”), also the source of Old English talu (English tale) and Old Norse tala.[6][2] Its origin is unclear.[2] Pfeifer reports a connection with Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos, “bait, trick”) and Latin dolus (“deceit”), from a root Proto-Indo-European *del- (“to aim, calculate, lie in wait”), or with a root *del(ə)- (“to split, carve”), so that the word would first have meant a notch cut as a mark.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German bezaln is first recorded in the Windberg Psalter of the last quarter of the 12th century.[7] It meant to count over, reckon, buy, acquire, reward and repay.[7][2] The first quotation in DWB2, from Herbort von Fritzlar's Trojan poem (after 1190), has pries … bezalen “to win glory”: Achilles hoped to earn fame by fighting.[3]

Semantic evolution

The Grimms note that the older languages used other verbs for paying: Gothic said usgiban, Old High German argeban and geltan, and in Middle High German gelten was still more frequent than bezaln.[4] In a Cologne guild charter of 1261/69 goods are to be paid for mit gereiden penningen “with ready pennies”, and the verb is common in the sense of paying a price, a debt or wages in Luther's Bible, as in bis du auch den letzten Heller bezahlest (Matthew 5:26).[3][4] Grimmelshausen in 1672 speaks of paying for shoes mit baar geld “in cash”.[3]

Figurative uses are old: one pays for a mistake or with one's life, and Adelung records die Zeche bezahlen “to pay the bill” also in the sense of suffering for others.[8][9] The phrase sich bezahlt machen means that an outlay pays off.[9]

Timeline

  • Last quarter of the 12th century – Middle High German bezaln in the Windberg Psalter.[7]
  • After 1190 – Herbort von Fritzlar uses it for winning glory.[3]
  • 1261/69 – A Cologne guild charter speaks of paying in cash.[3]
  • 1441 – Cologne brewers are to pay their fines before brewing again.[3]
  • 1531 – Hedio's Josephus uses it of repaying parents for their care.[3]
  • 17th century – The simple verb zahlen is specialised to paying a debt.[5]
  • 1672 – Grimmelshausen writes of paying mit baar geld.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To pay for something, to give its value in money: Wir haben die Getränke schon bezahlt.;[9][1] Kann ich mit Karte bezahlen?; figuratively, etwas mit dem Leben bezahlen, to pay for something with one's life;[9][1] sich bezahlt machen, to pay off.[9][1]
  2. To pay someone for work, to remunerate: Die Firma bezahlt ihre Leute gut.[9][1]
  3. To pay a sum of money: Sie hat für das Fahrrad 300 Euro bezahlt.[9][1]
  4. To pay what is owed to the one entitled to it: die Steuern bezahlen, die Miete bezahlen.[9][1]

Word family

  • bezahlbar
  • Bezahlschranke
  • Bezahlung

Usage notes

Er läuft, als ob er's bezahlt bekäme (“he runs as if he were being paid for it”) is a colloquial way of saying that someone runs very fast.[9] Bezahlen and the simple zahlen are largely interchangeable, but bezahlen takes the thing paid for or the person paid as its object.[9][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 f g h i j 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, 141
  4. ^ 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, 1792
  5. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1001
  6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag