Etymologically
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bringen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈbrɪŋən/, [bʁɪŋən], [b̥riŋ(ː)ən][1]
  • Germany: [b̥ʁɪŋŋ̍][1]

Forms

bringen (irregular weak, third-person singular present bringt, past tense brachte, past participle gebracht, past subjunctive brächte, auxiliary haben)[1] Luther still used the past participle bracht without ge-.[2] The strong participle (ge)brungen was used in older German and survives in dialects.[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German bringen, inherited from Old High German bringan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *bringan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *bringaną (“to bring”).[5][1][4] The same verb is Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌽 (briggan), Old English bringan and Old Frisian bringa, and today Dutch brengen and English bring.[5][6] North Germanic had no such verb: Danish bringe and Swedish bringa were borrowed from Middle Low German.[6][2]

Its inflection is unique in Germanic: a strong present beside a weak past with a different vowel (brachte), and in West Germanic partly a strong participle, which in Old High German also led to strong past forms such as Otfrid's brang.[5][4] Beside it, West Germanic had a weak verb of the causative type, Proto-Germanic *brangjan, in brengen (9th century), Old Saxon brengian and brengan; it continues in Dutch and in Central German dialects.[6][4]

Outside Germanic, Kluge compares Welsh hebrwng (“to lead, bring”) and perhaps Tocharian B präṅk- (“to hold back”), under a form Proto-Indo-European *bʰrenk-, which would require grammatical change in Germanic.[5][6] This form is seen as a blend of Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry”) and Proto-Indo-European *h₁neḱ- (“to reach”), two roots that supplement each other in Greek.[5][1] Pfeifer considers the further origin unexplained.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German bringan is first recorded in glosses of about 765, and then throughout the Old High German texts, meaning “to bring, give, lead, produce, offer”.[7][8][4] An 8th-century gloss renders Latin tulerunt “they brought” as prahton.[3] Old Saxon has bringan only twice, in one manuscript of the Heliand, beside the usual brengian.[4]

Semantic evolution

Paul treats bringen as the causative of kommen: many phrases correspond, such as zur Sprache bringen beside zur Sprache kommen, while others have no counterpart, such as zuwege bringen, übers Herz bringen and hinter sich bringen.[9] The revised Grimm dictionary groups the senses around change of place and change of possession, from which the others are derived, and notes its use as a light verb with nouns of action.[3] Older German said ein Kind bringen for giving birth, now zur Welt bringen;[9][10] a field bringt fruit and money bringt interest.[9] Heine wrote Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht, / Dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht.[9]

umbringen is late Middle High German umbebringen (about 1400), “to ward off” and “to kill”;[6] Mitbringsel “small present from a trip” appeared in the second half of the 19th century.[6] English borrowed bringsel, a device hanging from a trained dog's collar.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German bringan appears in glosses.[7]
  • 9th century – The weak verb brengen is recorded.[6]
  • c. 1400 – umbebringen “to kill” appears.[6]
  • 16th century – Luther uses the participle bracht without ge-.[2]
  • Second half of the 19th century – Mitbringsel appears.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To take, carry, convey to a place: das Paket zur Post bringen.[12][1]
  2. To bring something to someone and hand it over: der Nachbarin einen Kuchen bringen.[12][1]
  3. To accompany someone to a place: sie brachte ihn zum Zug.[12][1]
  4. (with es) To achieve, get somewhere: es weit bringen, es zu etwas bringen.[12][9]
  5. To cause someone or something to get into a state or place: jemanden zum Lachen bringen, sich in Gefahr bringen.[12][1]
  6. To yield, produce: das Konto bringt kaum Zinsen.[12][9]
  7. (colloquial) To manage, pull off; with es or nichts, to be of use: das bringt doch nichts.[1][12]
  8. (with a noun of action) Forms phrases that stand for a verb: zum Ausdruck bringen “to express”.[1][3]

Word family

  • abbringen
  • anbringen
  • aufbringen
  • beibringen
  • durchbringen
  • einbringen
  • erbringen
  • hervorbringen
  • mitbringen
  • Mitbringsel
  • umbringen
  • unterbringen
  • verbringen
  • vollbringen
  • unwiederbringlich

Usage notes

Etwas hinter sich bringen means to get something over with, and jemanden um etwas bringen to deprive someone of something.[12][9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 2, 384
  3. ^ a b c d 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, 817
  4. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 338
  5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 152
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 60
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  11. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag