brechen

Forms

brechen (class 4 strong, third-person singular present bricht, past tense brach, past participle gebrochen, past subjunctive bräche, auxiliary haben or sein)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German brëchen, inherited from Old High German brehhan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).^[2][3][4] The same strong verb is Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan), Old Saxon brekan, Old English brecan and Old Frisian breka, continued in Dutch breken and English break.^[2][3][4] It continues Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”), whose present was often formed with a nasal infix that could displace the /r/.^[2] The closest match is Latin frangō (“to break”), with an /a/ but compare its perfect frēgī; without the /r/ come Old Irish bongid (“breaks, reaps”) and Lithuanian beñgti (“to finish”).^[2][3] Kroonen derives the Latin verb from a nasal present Proto-Indo-European *bʰr̥g-néh₂- and the Germanic one from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrég-e-.^[4]

The root may be an extension of a simpler Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to strike”), found in Old Norse berja (“to strike, fight”) and feriō (“to strike”).^[2][5] Within German the ablauting nouns Bruch, Brocken and Brache belong to it.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German brehhan is first recorded in glosses of the late 8th century, where a prefixed form cannot be ruled out.^[5] About 830 the Tatian has the Jews ask Pilate that the legs of the crucified be broken.^[5] The Old High German senses already range from “to break, smash, tear, destroy” to “pluck”, “split” and “flicker”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb was originally transitive and later also intransitive.^[6] Many expressions keep old practices: eine Lanze für jemanden brechen comes from the tournament, den Stab über jemanden brechen from the breaking of a staff over a condemned criminal, and einen Streit vom Zaun brechen originally meant breaking a lath off a fence.^[6][9] Luther uses it for breaking bread and for breaking the law or marriage.^[9]

The sense “to vomit” dates from the 14th century, from the stomach that “breaks out” with force.^[2][6] Derived nouns are formed in -bruch, -brechen and -brecher, and Brecher “breaker (wave)” was modelled on English breaker in the 19th century.^[2][3][6] The French borrowings Bresche and Brikett came back into German from the same Germanic word.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – caprohchan in Old High German glosses.^[5]
• c. 830 – The Old High German Tatian uses the verb of breaking bones.^[5]
• Before 1022 – Notker writes of breaking teeth in the mouth.^[5]
• 14th century – Sense “to vomit”.^[2]
• 1482 – brechen “to vomit” in the Grimms' material.^[9]
• 19th century – Brecher “breaker”, after English.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To break something hard into pieces: einen Ast in zwei Teile brechen; also to quarry stone, to pick flowers.^[10][1]
2. (intransitive) To break, give way under pressure: Das Eis bricht.^[10][1]
3. (physics) To refract light or deflect waves; reflexive, to be deflected: Die Wellen brechen sich an der Mole.^[10][1]
4. To overcome a resistance: den Widerstand brechen; intransitive, to give way.^[10]
5. mit etwas / jemandem brechen: to break with a tradition or a person.^[10][11]
6. Not to keep: to break a contract, a promise, the law.^[10][11]
7. (elevated) To burst out suddenly: Das Licht bricht durch die Wolken.^[10][11]
8. (colloquial) To vomit.^[10][1]
9. (hunting) Of wild boar, to root up the ground.^[10][11]

Word family

• aufbrechen
• ausbrechen
• einbrechen
• Einbrecher
• abbrechen
• unterbrechen
• zerbrechen
• erbrechen
• gebrechen
• Gebrechen
• gebrechlich
• verbrechen
• Verbrechen
• Brecher
• Brechung
• radebrechen

Related words

• anbrechen
• Brache
• Bruch
• Brocken
• Bresche
• English break

Usage notes

Fixed phrases include eine Lanze für jemanden brechen “to stand up for someone”, etwas übers Knie brechen “to rush something” and zum Brechen voll “packed full”.^[6][10]

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. 149
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f 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, 725
6. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 58
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c 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 d e f g h i j Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org