bleiben

Forms

bleiben (class 1 strong, third-person singular present bleibt, past tense blieb, past participle geblieben, auxiliary sein)^[1] The prefix be- was increasingly shortened to b- from the 16th century, and the old participle blieben was still used into the 17th century.^[2][3] Once the verb was felt as a simple word, it took the participle geblieben.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German belīben, inherited from Old High German bilīban, inherited from Proto-Germanic *bilībaną (“to remain”), a verb formed with the prefix *bi- on a simple strong verb *lībaną that has been lost.^[4][5][1] The same verb is Old English belīfan, Old Frisian bilīva, Old Saxon bilīban and Dutch blijven; Old Norse blífa is a late borrowing, found only in Christian texts, and the Swedish and Danish verbs were also taken from German.^[4][6] The only Gothic evidence is a single disputed form.^[4] The Duden notes that the prefix is no longer felt in modern German, because the vowel of the Middle High German prefix has been lost.^[7]

The final consonant shows grammatical alternation, as Gothic 𐌰𐍆𐌻𐌹𐍆𐌽𐌰𐌽 (aflifnan, “to be left over”) proves, so the root must be Proto-Indo-European *leip-.^[4] A root of this shape means “to smear, stick”, and the verb can be understood as “to stay stuck, cling”: Sanskrit लिम्पति (limpáti, “smears, anoints”), Lithuanian lìpti (“to stick”), Old Church Slavonic прилѣпити (prilěpiti, “to stick”) and Tocharian B lip- (“to be left over”), perhaps also Ancient Greek ἀλείφω (aleíphō, “I anoint”) beside λίπος (lípos, “fat”).^[4][5] Pfeifer and the Duden trace it to an extension of the root of Leim, “slimy, to smear”, and Pfeifer adds that the Germanic words for “to be left over” may instead belong to the root of elf and leihen.^[5][7] Kroonen finds the voiced final consonant of the Germanic root obscure and suggests the verb was derived from the stative Proto-Germanic *libēną (“to live”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German bilīban is first recorded in glosses of the last quarter of the 8th century, then in Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid and the Ludwigslied, meaning “to stay, remain behind, be left over, stay away, cease, die”.^[9][10] The Old High German Isidor has dhazs ni bilibun ano herrun iudæoliudi “that the Jewish people did not remain without rulers”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Paul notes that the verb first described the result of a process as well as continuing in a state, which is why its perfect is formed with sein.^[3] Middle High German belīben could mean “to be killed, stay on the battlefield”, a sense that Early New High German kept and that survives in regional northern German tot bleiben.^[11][12][13] Adelung, around 1800, found the sense “to continue to exist” rare in High German but frequent in the Bible, and it lives on in bleibend “lasting”.^[14]

The derivatives arose late: übrigbleiben in the 15th century, Überbleibsel in the 17th, Verbleib in the chancery language of the 18th, and Bleibe “a place to stay” around 1900, especially in the youth movement.^[5][15] Bleiben lassen “to refrain from” goes back to Middle High German belīben lāʒen.^[5]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German bilīban appears in glosses and in the Isidor translation.^[9][2]
• 1060–1065 – Middle High German belīben is used by Williram of Ebersberg.^[11]
• 15th century – übrigbleiben is first recorded.^[5]
• 16th century – beleiben gives way to the shortened bleiben.^[2][6]
• 17th century – The participle blieben is still in use, and Überbleibsel appears.^[2][5]
• 18th century – Verbleib arises in the chancery language.^[5]
• About 1900 – Bleibe “a place to stay” spreads in the youth movement.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stay, remain in a place: Sie blieb drei Wochen in Wien.^[13][1]
2. To remain in a state, keep a quality: Das Geschäft bleibt montags geschlossen.^[13][1]
3. (with a dative) To be left to someone: Uns bleibt nur noch eine Stunde.^[1]
4. bei etwas bleiben: to stick to something, such as an opinion: Er bleibt bei seiner Aussage.^[1][3]
5. (with zu and an infinitive) To remain to be done: Es bleibt abzuwarten, ob das Wetter hält.^[1]
6. (regional, colloquial) tot bleiben: to be killed.^[13]

Word family

• Bleibe
• übrigbleiben
• verbleiben
• Überbleibsel
• Hinterbliebener
• abbleiben
• aufbleiben
• ausbleiben
• bleibend
• Bleiberecht
• dabeibleiben
• dableiben
• fortbleiben
• hinterbleiben
• unterbleiben
• Verbleib
• bleibenlassen

Related words

• leben
• Leber
• Leim
• elf
• zwölf
• English belive

Usage notes

Hier ist meines Bleibens nicht “I cannot stay here” is an old turn with the genitive of the verbal noun, frequent from the 16th century and used by Goethe and Schiller.^[16][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 384
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 131
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 90
7. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 176
8. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 199
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
13. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
14. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
15. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
16. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 95