eben

Forms

eben (strong nominative masculine singular ebener or ebner, comparative ebener or ebner, superlative am ebensten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German eben, inherited from Old High German eban, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *ebn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *ebnaz (“even, level”).^[2][3][1] The adverb continues Middle High German ebene and Old High German ebano.^[4][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌹𐌱𐌽𐍃 (ibns, “even, level”), Old Norse jafn, Old English efen, Old Saxon eƀan and Old Frisian even, continued in English even, Dutch effen and Swedish jämn.^[2][3][5]

From the start of the record the Germanic adjective meant both “equal” and “level”, properly “equally high”, and only Gothic keeps the two senses apart, using strong inflection for “level” and weak inflection for “equal”.^[3][4]

Its further origin is unclear.^[2][4][6] Kluge points out that Old English also has forms with /mn/ beside /bn/, which do not follow the usual distribution, and calls the comparison with Welsh and Breton words for “right, equal” attractive in meaning but difficult in sound.^[2] Kroonen derives the adjective from Proto-Indo-European *h₁em-no-, a no-stem also found in Sanskrit अम्नस् (amnás, “just, just now”), with Germanic /bn/ from older /mn/, and rejects the Celtic comparison.^[5] Pfeifer and the revised Grimm dictionary consider instead a root Proto-Indo-European *i̯em- (“to hold together, pair”), through Irish and Sanskrit words for “twin”.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German ebano is first recorded about 790 in the Benediktinerregel, rendering Latin aequaliter “equally”.^[7][8] Schützeichel lists the adjective in Notker, the Weißenburger Katechismus and the glosses with the senses “equal, just, straight, upright”, and the phrase in eban “side by side, level with”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “flat” is recorded from the 11th century and “straight” from the 12th; in Middle High German eben also meant “fitting, right” and “balanced, even”.^[10][11] The old sense “equal” survives in modern German only in compounds such as Ebenbild, ebenbürtig and Ebenmaß.^[3][4] The sense “fitting” lives on in the double negative nicht uneben “not bad”, as in Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm.^[10]

The adverb developed much as gerade, gleich and genau did: “evenly, in the same way, exactly”, especially with demonstratives, as in ebenda, ebendort and ebenso.^[3][4] Already in Middle High German it took on a temporal sense, both “a moment ago” and “just now”.^[3][4] Used alone it confirms what was said, and unstressed it has faded into a particle like halt, marking something that has to be accepted.^[3][4] The noun Ebene was used as a term of geometry for Medieval Latin planum from the 16th century.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 790 – Old High German ebano “equally” in the Benediktinerregel.^[7]
• 11th century – First record of the sense “flat”.^[10]
• 12th century – First record of the sense “straight”.^[10]
• 1280/85 – zu ebener Erde “at ground level” in the Schwabenspiegel.^[10]
• 16th century – Ebene becomes the geometrical term for a plane.^[3]
• 1628 – eben is used in geometry for uncurved surfaces.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. flat and level, without rises or dips.^[12][1]
2. smooth, levelled: zu ebener Erde “at ground level, on the ground floor”.^[12]

Adverb

1. just, a moment ago: Sie ist eben gegangen.^[1][3]
2. Right now, at this moment.^[3]
3. (modal particle) Simply, just: marks something as known or unchangeable, to be accepted: Das Wetter ist eben so.^[1][4]
4. (modal particle) Quickly, without fuss: Ich hole eben das Brot.^[1]
5. (literary) Exactly, precisely, with a demonstrative: eben dieser Mann.^[1][3]

Interjection

1. Exactly!, used to agree with a point one already held.^[1][3]

Word family

• Ebene
• ebnen
• ebenda
• ebender
• ebendort
• ebenso
• Ebenbild
• ebenbürtig
• Ebenmaß
• ebenfalls

Related words

• neben
• English even

Usage notes

In everyday speech the form ebent is common;^[10][1] the revised Grimm dictionary records the added /t/ sporadically in the 15th century and as regional colloquial usage in the 20th.^[7] An obsolete adjective eben “made of ebony”, from Ebenholz, is recorded in 1611 and 1632.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 226
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 d e f g h Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
7. ^ a b c d 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. 7, 5
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 81
10. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
12. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ 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. 7, 9