dennoch

Forms

dennoch^[1] Until the 18th century dannoch was also used,^[2][3] and late Middle High German and Early New High German had the variants dennocht, dennecht and dennost.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German dennoch, inherited from Old High German thenninoh, a compound from Old High German thanne (“then”) + noh (“still”), at first written separately.^[2][3][4] Its parts are the ancestors of denn (or dann) and noch.^[2][1] thanne is itself formed with an n-suffix from the demonstrative stem Proto-Indo-European *te- of der.^[5][2] The same compound is found in Middle Low German dennenoch.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer dates Old High German thanne noh, thenni noh “still at that time” to the 9th century,^[2] and a gloss of the 10th or 11th century renders Latin adhuc with denninoh.^[3] In Notker it already means “still, even under this condition”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German dannoch and dennoch meant “then still, still now, besides”, and also, since the 12th century, “nevertheless”, the modern sense.^[2][6] dennoch was at first Upper German and spread from the 13th century into Central and Low German, earlier than dannoch.^[3] The Grimms note that the sense “still, besides” was already rare in the 16th century.^[7] Luther's Bible uses the concessive sense often, as in die stolzen haben iren spot an mir, dennoch weiche ich nicht von deinem gesetz (Psalm 119:51).^[7] In the 18th century the temporal senses went out of use, dannoch died out, and dennoch has since been only a concessive adverb.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 9th century – Old High German thanne noh “still at that time”.^[2]
• 10th–11th century – denninoh in a gloss.^[3]
• 12th century – First use in the sense “nevertheless”.^[2]
• 13th century – dennoch spreads into Central and Low German.^[3]
• 1482 – The Vocabularius theutonicus glosses Latin attamen with dennoch.^[7]
• 18th century – The temporal senses and the variant dannoch go out of use.^[3][2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. nevertheless, all the same, however: Es regnete, dennoch gingen wir spazieren.^[4][1]
2. (obsolete) Then still, at that time.^[3][6]

Related words

• dann
• denn
• noch

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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, 672
4. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 181
6. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ 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, 952