der

Forms

der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neuter); plural die for all genders.^[2][3] Old High German had der, diu, daz, with the masculine dative demu, which became demo in the 9th century and deme in the 11th.^[4] Middle High German had der, diu, daz, plural die, der, den, die.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German der, inherited from Old High German der, a reshaping of an old demonstrative pronoun built on the stem Proto-Indo-European *to-.^[5][6][7] Most forms of the paradigm, and the neuter Proto-Germanic *þat, continue that stem, which is also found in Sanskrit तत् (tát, “this”), Ancient Greek τό (tó, “the (neuter)”), Lithuanian tàs (“that, this”), Russian тот (tot, “that”) and the second part of Latin iste (“that one”).^[6][8] The masculine and feminine nominative, however, originally began with /s/: Gothic 𐍃𐌰 (sa), Old Norse sá and Old English sē match स (sá) and ὁ (ho), from *so.^[6][9][8] In the High German area these forms with /s/ were given up before the first records and replaced by forms with ⟨d⟩ modelled on the rest of the paradigm, while elsewhere in Germanic they lasted longer.^[6][8]

The neuter is Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐍄𐌰 (þata), Old Norse þat, Old English þæt and Old Saxon that, which gave English that.^[10][7] The pronoun took on the function of the definite article in all the West Germanic languages, as in Greek, and partly also that of the relative pronoun;^[5][6] Gothic shows only the beginnings of an article, and the Scandinavian languages use this pronoun as one only in certain phrases, having a suffixed article of another origin.^[5][6] The modern article of English, the, and of Dutch, Dutch de, belong here too.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German der, diu, daz is recorded from the 8th century as a demonstrative pronoun (“this, that, the one”), a relative pronoun (“who, which”) and the definite article, rendering Latin is, ille, hic and qui.^[5][4] Köbler counts some 35,000 instances and dates the earliest source to the first half of the 8th century.^[11] The spelling varied from text to text: dhe in Isidor, thie in Tatian, de in the Hildebrandslied.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning of the 15th century the pronoun, though not the article, developed longer forms in the genitive and dative: dessen, deren, derer and denen.^[8][12] Paul explains derer and denen as the adjective ending added once more to the finished forms, while the origin of dessen and deren is still unclear.^[12] Luther still wrote the short genitives des and der, and the chancery style used dero.^[12] Writers of the classical period revived des, usually spelt deß, from the language of the Bible (Klopstock, Goethe), and the short genitive lives on in deshalb, deswegen, desgleichen and indes.^[12]

As a demonstrative, der points at something present, mentioned before or about to be named, and it can be contrasted with jener or dieser.^[12] In colloquial German the article is also used before first names (die Petra, der Papa).^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German der, diu, daz appears as pronoun and article.^[5][11]
• 9th century – The masculine dative demu becomes demo.^[4]
• Early 15th century – The longer forms dessen, deren, derer, denen begin to appear.^[8]
• 16th century – Luther still uses the short genitives des and der.^[12]

Meanings

Article

1. The definite article: marks a noun as known or identified (“the”).^[3][1]
2. With a noun standing for a whole class: der Mensch “man, human beings”.^[3]
3. (colloquial) Before personal names.^[3]

Pronoun

1. (demonstrative, stressed) That, this; that one.^[3][1]
2. (demonstrative) He, him, she, her, used instead of the personal pronoun, especially in informal speech.^[1]
3. (relative) Who, which, that.^[1]

Word family

• die
• das
• dass
• derjenige
• derselbe
• deshalb
• deswegen

Related words

• English the
• English that

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 954
3. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 589
5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 191
6. ^ a b c d e f 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 c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
8. ^ 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, 692
9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer