Etymologically
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darunter

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Pronunciation

  • [daˈʁʊntɐ][1]

Forms

darunter (adverb); colloquial drunter[1] The contracted drunter is found from early Middle High German, often in the 13th century and again in older New High German.[2] Until the 16th century the parts could be separated by other words in the sentence, while from the 16th century, more often in the 20th, the adverb was written together with verbs.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German dārunder, inherited from Old High German dārundere, from Old High German dār (“there”) + untar (“under”), the ancestors of da and unter.[2][3][4] The /r/ at the end of the first part was kept before the vowel of the preposition; elsewhere it was lost in Middle High German.[2][5] The same compound is Old Saxon thar undar, Dutch daaronder, English thereunder, Danish derunder and Swedish därunder.[2]

The first part goes back to Proto-West Germanic *þǣr (“there”), a locative in /r/ of the demonstrative stem Proto-Indo-European *to-;[5] Gothic and Old Norse have a short vowel, as in Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐍂 (þar).[5] The preposition goes back to Proto-Germanic *under, also in Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍂 (undar) and Old Norse undir.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German dāruntar means “under it, between them”.[3] Middle High German records begin about 1130, with dar under stat macrocosmus “beneath that stands the macrocosm” in Priest Arnold's poem on the number seven, and about 1170 Lamprecht's Alexander uses it with a verb of motion.[2]

Semantic evolution

Beside its spatial sense the adverb was used from Middle High German for things placed under a text, as a signature, and in 1493 Riederer's rhetoric describes a stroke drawn under a dot.[2] In Early New High German it could also be temporal, “meanwhile, during this”, and mean “among them”.[7][8] The temporal use is rare today.[9]

Modern German uses it for position and direction under something, for a matter under which one suffers or which one understands by a word, for a value below a given amount, and for membership of a group, “among them, including”.[4][1]

Timeline

  • c. 1130 – dar under appears in Priest Arnold's poem on the number seven.[2]
  • c. 1170 – Lamprecht's Alexander uses the adverb with a verb of motion.[2]
  • 13th century – The contracted drunder is frequent.[2]
  • 1493 – Riederer's rhetoric uses it of a stroke placed under a mark.[2]
  • 16th century – The adverb begins to be written together with verbs.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. underneath, below it; under this place or object, also with verbs of motion: Im Erdgeschoss ist ein Café, und darunter liegt der Keller.[4][1]
  2. Under this matter: Was verstehst du darunter?[4]
  3. Below this amount or limit: Zehn Euro, darunter verkaufe ich das Buch nicht.[4][10]
  4. among them, including: Viele Gäste kamen, darunter auch die Bürgermeisterin.[4][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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, 351
  3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  4. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 177
  6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 943
  7. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org