brauchen

Forms

brauchen (third-person singular present braucht, past tense brauchte, past participle gebraucht, past subjunctive (prescribed) brauchte or (always used in speech, common in writing) bräuchte, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German brūchen, inherited from Old High German brūhhan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *brūkan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *brūkaną (“to use, enjoy”).^[2][3][1] The same verb is Old Saxon brūkan (“to enjoy”), Old English brūcan, Old Frisian brūka, Middle Dutch brūken and Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (brūkjan), and today Dutch gebruiken, Swedish bruka and English brook.^[2][3][4] It was probably a strong verb in Germanic, but only Old English keeps it strong throughout; the other West Germanic languages have a strong present with weak past forms, Gothic has a weak verb, and Norse lacks it.^[2][3][4]

Outside Germanic it is compared with Latin fruor (“to enjoy, have the use of”) and its relatives frūctus (“enjoyment, produce”) and frūx (“crops, fruit”) (see Frucht and frugal), which point to a root Proto-Indo-European *bʰrūg- (“to use, enjoy”) known only from Germanic and Italic.^[2][3][5] Kluge also adds a Sanskrit verb “to enjoy, consume”, though only with formal flaws, and Wiktionary writes the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewHg- (“to make use of”).^[2][1] Pfeifer suggests that it is an extension of the root of Brosame, with an original sense “to break off fruit to eat”, but this is speculative.^[3] The original meaning was thus “to enjoy (crops, food and drink)”.^[2][5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German brūhhan is first recorded in glosses about 765, and then in the Benedictine Rule (about 800), the Ludwigslied, Notker and Williram.^[7][8] It meant “to use, make use of, enjoy, practise”, and also “to administer”, construed with the genitive or the accusative.^[8][7][3] An 8th/9th-century gloss renders Latin fruitur “he enjoys” with pruchit.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The sense moved from “to enjoy, have a share in” through “to use, employ” to “to need”, which became usual in the 17th century.^[3][2][9] It arose in negative sentences: ich brauche das nicht first meant “I can do it without using that”, and so “I do not need it”; at the same time the object moved from the genitive into the accusative, although the genitive was still normal in the 18th century (Schiller, Tell: wenn wir sein jetzt brauchten in der Not).^[2][9] The sense “to use” passed largely to the prefixed gebrauchen.^[9][5][10]

With zu and an infinitive, in negative or restricted sentences, brauchen became a near-modal verb meaning “to have to”, taking the place of dürfen in this use from the 19th century; the infinitive without zu is found in Rückert in 1834 and is common in colloquial speech.^[9][11] The derived noun Brauch moved from “use” to “custom” in the 16th century, probably from phrases like rechter Brauch “proper use”.^[2][3][6] Early New High German also had the senses “to take pains” and “to have sexual intercourse with a woman”.^[12][13]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German brūhhan appears in glosses.^[7]
• c. 800 – brūhhen “to use” in the Old High German Benedictine Rule.^[7]
• 9th century – The prefixed missabrūhhan “to misuse” is recorded.^[3]
• 17th century – The sense “to need” becomes usual, first in negative sentences.^[3][2][9]
• 18th century – The genitive object is still common beside the accusative.^[9]
• 1834 – Rückert uses negated brauchen with a bare infinitive.^[9]
• 19th century – nicht zu … brauchen replaces nicht zu … dürfen.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To need, require: Wir brauchen dringend einen Arzt.^[11][1]
2. To take (a certain time) for something: Sie braucht eine Stunde bis zum Büro.^[11]
3. (formal, dated) To be necessary, with the genitive: es braucht keiner Worte; in Switzerland and colloquially also with the accusative.^[11]
4. To use, make use of: Kannst du den alten Schrank noch brauchen?^[11]
5. To use up, consume (an amount): Der Motor braucht viel Benzin.^[11]
6. With zu and an infinitive, in negative or restricted sentences: to need to, have to: Du brauchst nicht zu warten.^[11][1]

Word family

• gebrauchen
• missbrauchen
• verbrauchen
• Brauch
• Brauchtum
• brauchbar
• aufbrauchen
• Nießbrauch
• gebräuchlich

Related words

• Frucht
• frugal
• English brook

Usage notes

In the past subjunctive the prescribed form is brauchte, but the umlauted bräuchte is usual in speech and common in writing.^[1][11] The genitive construction (es braucht keiner Entschuldigung) is now formal, while es braucht with the accusative is Swiss and colloquial.^[11][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 147
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c 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, 690
5. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 185
6. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 61
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
13. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 315