Etymologically
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breit

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Pronunciation

Forms

breit (strong nominative masculine singular breiter, comparative breiter, superlative am breitesten)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German breit, inherited from Old High German breit, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *braid, inherited from Proto-Germanic *braidaz (“broad, wide”).[2][3][1][4] The same word is Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌸𐍃 (braiþs), Old Norse breiðr, Old English brād, Old Frisian brēd, Old Saxon brēd, Dutch breed and English broad.[2][3][4][5]

Its origin is unclear: Kluge, the Duden, the revised Grimm dictionary and the EWA know of no convincing connection outside Germanic.[2][6][7][4] Inside Germanic the zero grade appears in Old High German breta (“flat of the hand”), which Kluge and the EWA take as related;[2][4] Wahrig infers that the word first named a surface or a measure of area.[8] Proposed roots include Proto-Indo-European *bʰrei-, as an extension of a root “to fence”, by Trier (in Pfeifer), or the same root in the sense “to cut” (Orel),[3][5] and a participle of Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”), compared with Lithuanian ber̃ti (“to strew”) (Wiktionary).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German breit appears in glosses from the 8th century and then in Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “broad, wide, extensive, flat, large” and figuratively “proud, haughty”.[2][9][10][4] A gloss of the middle of the 9th century renders Latin dexteralia “bracelets” as armbogas breida, “broad arm rings”.[7]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first described extension in general, as still in weit und breit “far and wide” and die breite Masse, “the broad mass”, then the smaller dimension of a surface as against its length.[6][11] In expressions of measure it once took the genitive, as Middle High German eines hâres breit “a hair's breadth”; from such phrases come eine Handbreit and einen Fingerbreit.[6][11] Of speech it means “long-winded”, as in lang und breit.[11][12]

Breitseite “the long side of a ship” dates from the 16th century and later, after English broadside, meant the guns of one side and their firing.[11][3] The colloquial jemanden breitschlagen “to talk someone round” (18th century) probably comes from metalworking,[6][11] and breit “drunk, stoned” is regional slang.[13][1] English took over Breitschwanz as broadtail, a lamb's fur, in 1892.[14]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German breit appears in glosses.[2][9]
  • 9th century – A gloss renders “bracelets” as broad arm rings.[7]
  • 16th century – Breitseite “the long side of a ship” is recorded.[3][11]
  • 18th century – verbreiten, verbreitern and breitschlagen are recorded.[3]
  • 1892 – English broadtail is first recorded, from German Breitschwanz.[14]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Broad, wide: ein breiter Fluss.[13][1]
  2. (with a measure) Having a given width: Das Regal ist achtzig Zentimeter breit.[13]
  3. Wide-ranging, concerning large parts of the public: ein breites Angebot.[13][1]
  4. Long-winded: etwas lang und breit erzählen.[13][11]
  5. Broad, coarse in manner or speech: Er sprach mit breitem schwäbischem Akzent.[13]
  6. (regional, colloquial) Drunk or stoned.[13][1]

Word family

  • Breite
  • breiten
  • ausbreiten
  • verbreiten
  • verbreitern
  • unterbreiten
  • Breitseite
  • breitschlagen
  • Handbreit
  • Breitengrad
  • English broad
  • Old High German breta

Usage notes

In paired phrases breit always comes second: weit und breit, lang und breit, groß und breit.[12] Sich breitmachen is “to take up a lot of space” and also “to spread”; in Switzerland etwas breitschlagen is “to make too much of something”.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 150
  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 d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 311
  5. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ 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, 747
  8. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  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. 59
  11. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  12. ^ 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, 356
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  14. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de