durch

Forms

durch^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German durch, inherited from Old High German duruh, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *þur-h-, inherited from Proto-Germanic *þurhw.^[2][1][3] The same word is Old Saxon thurh, Old English þurh and Old Frisian thruch, while Gothic 𐌸𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌷 (þairh) and þerh show another ablaut grade, Proto-Germanic *þer-h-.^[2][4][5] Dutch door, English through, thorough and Yiddish דורך (durkh) continue it.^[2][1][3]

Outside Germanic the closest match is Sanskrit तिरस् (tirás, “through, across”), which has an extension with a velar like the Germanic word; both belong to the root of Proto-Indo-European *ter(ə)- (“to cross over, get through”), as do Latin trāns, Old Irish tre and Welsh drwy.^[2][4][5] Pfeifer and the revised Grimm compare the final consonant with a strengthening particle seen in Sanskrit and Avestan forms meaning “right across”;^[4][5][1] Wiktionary also mentions a compound with Proto-Indo-European *h₃ekʷ- (“to see”).^[4][5][1]

Old High German often had a vowel inserted before the final consonant (⟨durah⟩, ⟨duruh⟩); forms without ⟨h⟩, like dur, appear sporadically from the 8th century and more often in late Old High German and Middle High German, above all in Alemannic.^[5][3] An umlauted ⟨dür⟩ is found from the 12th century, and ⟨dürch⟩ is frequent from the 15th.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German duruh is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses and in the Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[2][7] It meant “through” in space and time, and also “because of, by means of, for the sake of”: both the spatial and the causal uses are already Old High German.^[3][4] As a preposition it mostly rendered Latin per, and its use for a mediating person or thing already developed in Old High German.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From durch with verbs came the many separable and inseparable compounds such as durchbrechen and durchbohren.^[4][8] Durchaus was first spatial, “right through and out” (14th–17th centuries), then “completely, by all means” (from the 15th century); durchweg “right through” (17th century) came to mean “without exception” in the 18th;^[4] durcheinander “mixed up” dates from the early 15th century.^[4]

Adverbial durch is now largely colloquial: “past” in es ist drei Uhr durch, “finished” in ich bin mit der Zeitung durch, “worn through” and “cooked through”.^[9][10][4] Paul thinks the sense “finished (with someone)” was taken from American English, perhaps like the intensifying durch und durch “through and through”.^[9] The newest use is youth slang durch “crazy, freaked out”, shortened from expressions such as durchgeknallt and durchdrehen.^[1] German durch was borrowed into Czech and Slovak slang as a card-game term.^[11]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German duruh in glosses.^[2][7]
• 12th century – First umlauted dür.^[3][6]
• 14th century – durchaus “right through”.^[4]
• Early 15th century – durcheinander.^[4]
• 15th century – durchaus “completely”;^[4][3] dürch frequent.^[4][3]
• 16th century – The noun Durcheinander “chaos”.^[4]
• 17th century – durchweg “right through”.^[4]
• 18th century – durchweg “without exception”.^[4]

Meanings

Preposition

1. With the accusative: through, in at one side and out at the other: durch die Tür gehen “to go through the door”.^[10][1]
2. Through, across the whole extent of a space: durch die Straßen bummeln “to stroll through the streets”.^[10]
3. By means of, via; also giving a cause: durch Boten schicken “to send by messenger”.^[10][1]
4. (mathematics) divided by: 6 durch 3 = 2.^[10][1]
5. In passive sentences: by: das Haus wurde durch Bomben zerstört “the house was destroyed by bombs”.^[10]
6. Usually after its noun: throughout a period: die ganze Nacht durch “all night long”.^[10][1]

Adverb

1. (colloquial) Past: es ist schon drei Uhr durch “it's already past three”.^[10][1]
2. (colloquial) Finished: mit dem Lehrbuch bin ich jetzt durch “I'm done with the textbook now”.^[10]
3. (colloquial) Worn through, broken: die Sohle ist durch “the sole is worn through”.^[10]
4. (colloquial) Ripe (of cheese); cooked through (of meat).^[10]

Adjective

1. (youth slang, predicative) crazy, freaked out.^[1]

Word family

• durchaus
• durchweg
• durcheinander
• Durcheinander
• hindurch

Related words

• durch-
• English through

Usage notes

Durch und durch means “completely” and “to the core” (der Schrei ging mir durch und durch).^[10] Bei jemandem unten durch sein “to have lost someone's favour” follows Dutch onderdoor gaan, said of a ship swept by heavy seas, then of a failed venture.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 223
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ 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
6. ^ 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, 1568
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de