eigen

Forms

eigen (strong nominative masculine singular eigener or eigner, comparative (rare) eigener or eigner, superlative (rare) am eigensten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German eigen, inherited from Old High German eigan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *aigan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *aiganaz (“own”), originally the past participle of the preterite-present verb Proto-Germanic *aiganą (“to possess”) (“he possesses” *aih).^[2][1] The participle is also Old Norse eiginn, Old English āgen, Old Frisian ēin and Old Saxon ēgan, and today Dutch eigen, English own and Swedish egen.^[2][3][4] The verb itself is Gothic 𐌰𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (aigan), eiga, āgan and eigan (“to have, possess”); it died out in German.^[3][5][6]

The verb corresponds to Sanskrit ईशे (ī́śe, “owns, rules”), which Kluge and Pfeifer take as a remodelled old perfect, and Pfeifer adds Avestan aēšā- (“property”) and Tocharian B aik- (“to know”).^[2][3] The root is Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to possess”).^[1][3] The same Germanic verb is behind Fracht.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German adjective eigan is first recorded at the end of the 8th century, in glosses and the Monsee Fragments, meaning “own, belonging to”, “characteristic” and “special”;^[7][6] eigine gibūra were bondsmen.^[7][6] The noun eigan “property” appears in the Muspilli, Otfrid and Notker.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

As an old participle the word meant “possessed”, and older German used it of unfree people: eigene Leute were serfs, a sense now kept only in leibeigen.^[8][3][5] Usually it marks something as belonging to a particular person and no other.^[8][5] From there it came to mean “typical of” and then “peculiar, strange”.^[5][3] The Grimms show an adverbial use “exactly, really” in the 17th century (Opitz, Logau).^[9]

The neuter noun Eigen “property, land held outright” stood in old law beside Erbe and against Lehen (land held in fief).^[10] It survives in sich etwas zu eigen machen and etwas sein Eigen nennen, where it is now felt as the adjective.^[3][11] Many derivatives grew from the different senses: eigentlich “really” (from Middle High German eigenlich “own, expressly”), Eigenschaft, Eigentum and Eigenbrötler, first in Alemannic a bachelor who kept his own household, literally “one who bakes his own bread”.^[3] The superlative became common in the second half of the 18th century as a means of emphasis.^[12]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German eigan “own” appears in glosses and the Monsee Fragments.^[7]
• 9th century – The noun eigan “property” is recorded.^[3]
• 17th century – eigens “specially” appears.^[3]
• 2nd half of the 18th century – The superlative comes into use for emphasis;^[12] Lessing still notes it as unusual in Wieland.^[12]
• Early 19th century – Eigenbrötler “eccentric” appears in literary German.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Belonging to oneself, one's own; often only strengthening a possessive: mit eigenen Augen, ein eigenes Bad.^[11][1]
2. Belonging to a person or thing and typical of it, characteristic: mit dem ihr eigenen Humor.^[11]
3. (dated) strange, odd: Mir war ganz eigen zumute.^[11][5]
4. (regional) Particular, fussy about something.^[11]

Word family

• Eigen
• eigens
• eigentlich
• Eigenheit
• Eigenschaft
• Eigentum
• eigentümlich
• Eigenbrötler
• eignen
• leibeigen

Related words

• Fracht
• English own

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 232
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 84
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 95
10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 96
11. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ a b c 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, 370