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diesmal

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Etymology and origin of the German word diesmal

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
c. 1420, Justinger's Berne chronicle
Ultimate origin
Middle High German (diser,māl)
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
German dieser
German diesmal

Forms

diesmal[1]

Etymology

It is from German dieser (“this”) + Mal (“time”), fused from the syntactic group, with the variant diesesmal.[2][1] The same formation is Middle Low German ditmāl and Dutch ditmaal.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record, after 1420 in Justinger's Berne chronicle, is uf dismale “for this time”; combined with auf or für was the original use and predominated in the 15th and 16th centuries.[2] A Vienna document of 1497 has ditzmal alone, “this time”.[2]

Semantic evolution

Early New High German has the variants diesmals and diesmalen “this time, at this point”.[3] Luther's Bible writes dis mal (Exodus 9:14), and the spellings diszmal and dießmal were common before diesmal.[4][2] The prepositional use survives in für diesmal “for now, for this once”.[5][2]

Timeline

  • After 1420 – uf dismale in Justinger's Berne chronicle.[2]
  • 1497 – ditzmal in a Vienna document.[2]
  • 16th century – Luther's Bible writes dis mal.[4]
  • 1809 – Goethe writes dießmal bin ich's in Die Wahlverwandtschaften.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. This time, on this occasion, as opposed to another: Diesmal fahren wir mit dem Rad.;[5][1] für diesmal, for now.[5][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 1036
  3. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  4. ^ 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, 1143
  5. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
Cite this entry

“Diesmal.” Etymologically, 20 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/de/diesmal. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·