dein

Forms

dein m (feminine deine, neuter dein, plural deine)^[1] Dein was also the genitive of du; from the 16th century the inflected form deiner appeared beside it, and it has prevailed since the 19th century.^[2][3] The weak declension of the possessive begins only in the 13th century and remained an exception.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German dīn, inherited from Old High German dīn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *þīnaz (“your”).^[5][3][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌸𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (þeins), Old Norse þinn, Old English þīn, Old Saxon thīn and Old Frisian thīn, and it continues in Dutch dijn, Swedish din, Icelandic þinn and English thine.^[5][3][6]

It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *téynos,^[1] an adjective with the suffix Proto-Indo-European *-nos formed on Proto-Indo-European *tei, a locative of the stem of the second-person pronoun seen in the oblique forms of du, so originally “being with you”, then “belonging to you”.^[5][3][6] Kluge takes *tei to be an originally enclitic pronoun stem, found in Hittite -ti and Old Latin tīs.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The possessive is recorded from the late 8th century, in the Old High German Isidor: mit dhinem faterum “with your fathers”.^[6][5] It is common in the glosses of the 8th and 9th centuries and in nearly all Old High German texts, Köbler counting more than two thousand instances.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old High German the possessive could be used after the definite article as a noun, and in the plural it came to mean one's family: Platen writes zeuch in frieden samt den deinen, and die Deinigen is recorded from 1551.^[2] Middle High German put it before a name, as in ich bin, herre, dîn Alyse, which led to the closing formula of letters, dein aufrichtiger Schiller.^[2] Predicative use is now rare, as in Luther's Lord's Prayer: Denn dein ist das Reich.^[2][4]

In deinetwegen, deinethalben and deinetwillen the /t/ was inserted in late Middle High German or Early New High German to ease pronunciation, replacing older forms such as deinenthalben.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – The Old High German Isidor uses dhin.^[6]
• 863–871 – Otfrid uses thinen.^[6]
• Before 1022 – Notker writes tînen namen “your name”.^[6]
• 13th century – Weak forms of the possessive begin to appear.^[4]
• 1551 – First record of die Deinigen “your family”.^[2]
• 16th century – The genitive deiner appears beside dein.^[2]

Meanings

Determiner

1. Your, thy: belonging to or associated with the person addressed as du: Ist das dein Fahrrad?^[8][1]
2. Without a noun, yours: Ist der Schirm meiner oder deiner?^[8]
3. (formal) As a noun: die Deinen your family, das Deine what belongs to you or is your duty, der Deine or die Deine your husband or wife.^[8]

Word family

• deinetwegen
• deinethalben
• deinetwillen
• Deinige

Related words

• du
• dich
• dir
• mein
• English thine

Usage notes

In letters the possessive is often capitalised as Dein, and it closes a letter before the writer's name, as in Deine Anna.^[1][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 910
5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 186
6. ^ 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. 6, 565
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag