deutsch

Forms

deutsch (strong nominative masculine singular deutscher, comparative deutscher, superlative am deutschesten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German diutisch, inherited from Old High German diutisc, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *þiudisk, inherited from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz (“of the people”), an adjective with the suffix *-iskaz (modern -isch) formed from *þeudō (“people”).^[2][3][1][4] That noun is Gothic 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰 (þiuda), Old Norse þjóð, Old English þēod, Old Saxon thiod and Old High German diot, later diet, which survives in names such as Dietrich.^[3][2][4] It is related to Old Irish túath (“people, tribe, land”), Lithuanian tautà (“people, nation”) and Oscan touto, from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂ (“tribe, people”);^[2][3][1] Kluge doubts a link with the Hittite word for “army”.^[2] Pfeifer puts the noun, like tausend, with a root meaning “to swell”, so that it first meant “the great, powerful multitude”;^[3][2] Kluge, under deuten, starts from “strength, power”.^[3][2]

The adjective first meant “belonging to the people”; because the vowels of the noun and the adjective differ, it must be old.^[2] The Grimms' revised dictionary dates it to about 700, when Frankish *þeodisk was formed on the boundary between Romance and Germanic speech as the opposite of *walhisk (“Romance”), perhaps translating Latin vulgāris.^[5][3] Duden instead thinks of a loan translation of Ancient Greek ἐθνικός (ethnikós) or gentīlis.^[4] 𐌸𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍉 (þiudiskō, “in a heathen way”) matches it in form, but is an independent rendering of ἐθνικῶς (ethnikōs).^[2][3][5]

The word is first found in Latin dress, as Medieval Latin theodiscus, which was displaced around 1050 by teutonicus.^[3][5] The initial ⟨t⟩ of tiutsch and later teutsch is put down to the influence of the Latin word.^[6][1] From Middle Dutch duutsc comes English Dutch; Italian tedesco and Spanish tudesco come from the Medieval Latin form.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in Medieval Latin: in 786 the decisions of a synod in England were to be read out tam latine quam theodisce, “in Latin as well as in the vernacular”, and in 788 the verdict on Duke Tassilo cites a word quod theodisca lingua harisliz dicitur (“which in the people's language is called harisliz”).^[6] In German form it appears in the 9th century as thiutisce “in the vernacular”, in a Freising commentary on Donatus and a Kassel gloss, and the adjective diutisc “of the people's language, German” from the 10th century;^[6][7] Notker uses it.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

At first the word named the Germanic vernacular in contrast to Latin; with the Romanization of the West Franks it came to be used in contrast to Romance.^[2] From about 830 it was also applied to political matters, and at the beginning of the 10th century the Latin words were restricted to the language and the realm of the East Franks, the later German kingdom.^[5][3] In the 10th and 11th centuries it became the general name for the continental Germanic languages; the Dutch also called their own language deutsch (Dietsc in Flanders, Duutsc in Holland) until Nederlands replaced it from the 16th century.^[2]

From the contrast between the people's language and learned Latin came the sense “plain, frank”: teutsch mit einem reden is in Brant in 1494.^[8][3] The spelling teutsch was common until the 16th and 17th centuries;^[8][3] Gottsched and Adelung rejected it, and in the 19th century it marked a self-consciously patriotic attitude.^[8][3] Deutschland arose from phrases such as in Diutischemi lande in the Annolied (about 1085), and the written form as one word became general only in the 16th century.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 786 – Medieval Latin theodisce “in the vernacular” at a synod in England.^[6][5]
• 788 – theodisca lingua in the verdict on Tassilo.^[6]
• c. 830 – First political use of theodiscus.^[5]
• 9th century – thiutisce in a Freising commentary on Donatus.^[6]
• c. 1050 – teutonicus has displaced theodiscus.^[5]
• c. 1085 – in Diutischemi lande in the Annolied.^[3]
• c. 1150 – Diutisk lant in the Kaiserchronik.^[3]
• 1494 – Brant: teutsch mit einem reden “to speak plainly with someone”.^[8]
• 1748 – Gottsched rejects the spelling teutsch.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. German: of the German people.^[9][1]
2. German: of Germany.^[9][1]
3. German: of or in the German language.^[9][1]
4. In German script (deutsch schreiben).^[9]

Word family

• Deutsch
• Deutscher
• Deutschland
• verdeutschen
• hochdeutsch
• niederdeutsch
• plattdeutsch
• bundesdeutsch
• altdeutsch

Related words

• deuten
• Dietrich
• English Dutch
• Dutch Duits
• Italian tedesco

Usage notes

Mit jemandem deutsch reden means to tell someone plainly what one thinks; the phrase is recorded from the second half of the 15th century.^[9][3] Auf gut Deutsch means “in plain terms”.^[9] The name of the language is the noun Deutsch.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 194
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 811
6. ^ a b c d e f g Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 699
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag