da

Forms

da (adverb and conjunction, invariable)^[1] Old High German dâr lost its final -r in the 11th and 12th centuries, and after about 1300 the form dâr is found only in central and northern German sources.^[2] It was revived in the late 15th century, was most frequent in the 17th and went out of use in the second half of the 18th.^[2] Most dialects changed it to do (first in Bavarian in the 12th century), but since the end of the 17th century only da has been written.^[2]

Etymology

The modern word continues a local adverb, inherited from Middle High German dā, also dār, inherited from Old High German dār, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *þǣr (“there”).^[3][1] The same adverb is Old Saxon thār, Old English þǣr and Old Frisian thēr, while Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐍂 (þar) and Old Norse þar go back to a form with a short vowel, Proto-Germanic *þar (“there”).^[3][4] Kluge lists Dutch daar, English there, Swedish där and Icelandic þar as the same word.^[3] It was formed with the locative suffix *-r from the demonstrative stem Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”), the stem of the article der; the different vowels may be ablaut grades or special developments in unstressed position.^[3][5][4] The final /r/ was lost in such unstressed words from Middle High German times, but it survives before a vowel in compounds such as daran and darin, where it keeps the vowels apart.^[3][5]

The temporal sense “then” comes from another adverb, Middle High German dō, Old High German dō, Old Saxon thō, with Old English þā corresponding.^[3][5] Kluge gives two explanations: a long-vowel, probably instrumental, adverb from the same demonstrative stem, or the feminine accusative singular of the demonstrative pronoun with a word for “time” understood.^[3] Duden and the second edition of the Grimms' dictionary favour the accusative, comparing the Gothic pronoun.^[5][6] On that view the Old High German and Old Saxon vowel is irregular and must be due to the local adverb.^[3]

From the 14th century the temporal form was more and more replaced by the local one; by the middle of the 16th century the merged form had prevailed, and the older one lingered only in Swiss texts into the early 17th century.^[6] The second edition of the Grimms' dictionary ascribes this less to dialect sound change than to the habit of picturing relations in time in terms of place.^[6] Duden 7 and Paul treat modern German as having merged them.^[5][7] Wiktionary adds a third source, Middle High German dare (“thither”), Old High German dara, which has mostly given way to hin and dahin but survives in verbs such as darbringen.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German dār is recorded from 765 in the glosses, and in almost every later text.^[9] In the Old High German Isidor of the late 8th century, dhese ist dhar chiboran “this one was born there” renders Latin iste natus est ibi.^[2] The temporal thō, dō “then, at that time; when” appears in the Hildebrandslied, Isidor, Otfrid and Notker.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The local adverb is at first demonstrative and points to what is further from the speaker, in contrast with hier; it can follow a noun closely, as in die Frau da “that woman there”.^[7] In Early New High German forms with dar- such as darbei and darmit were common before consonants too, and the chancery style kept them into the 18th century;^[7] Goethe often used them in his letters.^[7] Shortened forms such as dran, drauf and drin belong to colloquial and poetic language, while droben, drinnen, draußen and drüben became the only forms in use.^[7]

The temporal adverb from the start mostly pointed to a moment in the past, and it was often placed at the head of a sentence in narrative: dô wuohs in Niderlanden eins rîchen küneges kint (“then there grew up in the Netherlands the child of a mighty king”), says the Nibelungenlied.^[11] Luther often used it this way.^[11] It later became a conjunction, first of time (now dated) and then of cause.^[3]

Timeline

• 765 – Old High German dār appears in the glosses.^[9]
• Late 8th century – The Old High German Isidor uses dhar for Latin ibi.^[2]
• 11th–12th century – The local adverb loses its final -r.^[2]
• 14th century – The temporal do begins to be replaced by da.^[6]
• Mid-16th century – da has prevailed in the temporal sense too.^[6]
• Second half of the 18th century – The revived form dar goes out of use.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. there: at that place: Da drüben steht mein Fahrrad.^[12][1]
2. here, at this place; also present, available: Ist noch Kaffee da?^[12][1]
3. (temporal) then, at that moment: Wir saßen beim Essen, da klingelte es.^[12][1]
4. Under these circumstances; in this respect: Da muss ich dir recht geben.^[12][13]
5. Opening a conversation or a story: Da sitze ich gestern im Bus, und wer steigt ein?^[12][13]
6. (colloquial) Standing for a pronominal adverb split into parts, as in northern German da weiß ich nichts von.^[12][1]

Conjunction

1. since, because, as: Da es regnete, blieben wir zu Hause.^[12][1]
2. (literary, dated) when: in den Jahren, da er noch jung war.^[12][1]

Word family

• ebenda
• dahinten
• dahinter
• daran
• darin
• darauf
• dabei
• damit
• dahin
• Dasein

Related words

• allda
• dar
• dann
• dort
• der
• English there

Usage notes

Da und dort means “here and there; now and then”, and von da an is “from then on”.^[12][5] The noun Dasein “existence” builds on the sense “present”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 6, 1
3. ^ 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. 177
4. ^ a b 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 187
6. ^ 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. 6, 10
7. ^ 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
8. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 535
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. 74
11. ^ 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, 656
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
14. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 1360