entdecken

Forms

entdecken (third-person singular present entdeckt, past tense entdeckte, past participle entdeckt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German endecken, inherited from Old High German intdecken (“to uncover”), a formation with the prefix ent- on decken.^[2][3][4] The same formation is Middle Low German entdecken and Dutch ontdekken (“to uncover, discover”).^[3][4] The base verb continues Proto-Germanic *þakjaną (“to cover”), probably a verb from the noun Dach, and is the same word as Old English þeccan, Old Norse þekja and English thatch.^[5][6] A variant spelling with a single t, from the assimilated group /td/, is found from the 10th century and in Upper German into the 17th.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record is the Old High German Benedictine Rule (790–802), where spiritual fathers know how to heal wounds without uncovering (intdecchan) and exposing those of others.^[4] The word meant “to uncover, bare, reveal, disclose”, and Old High German already used it of lies being revealed.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense “to uncover, bare” lasted into the 18th century, as in Luther's entblösse den Fus / entdecke den schenckel and Wieland's den Busen halb entdeckt.^[10] Dutch still has it, but German replaced it with aufdecken and entblößen from the 17th century, and it was obsolete by the 20th.^{[10][3][9][4]} From Middle High German on, jemandem etwas entdecken meant “to tell, reveal something to someone”, as in Schiller's entdeckt ich dir, was mich von hinnen ruft.^[9][10]

The modern sense “to find something unknown” developed from the 16th century, perhaps under the influence of French découvrir, and has parallels in Italian scoprire, Portuguese descobrir and English discover.^[2][4][3] Kant distinguished it from erfinden: what is discovered already existed, what is invented did not.^[10] Entdecker meant a knacker in the 15th century and took its modern sense “discoverer” in the 17th.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 790/802 – Old High German intdecchan “to uncover” in the Benedictine Rule.^[4]
• 10th century – The assimilated form entecken appears.^[7]
• 15th century – Entdecker means a knacker.^[3]
• 16th century – The sense “to find something unknown” appears.^[3][4]
• 17th century – Entdecker “discoverer” is recorded.^[3]
• 20th century – The sense “to uncover” is obsolete.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To discover, find something not known before: einen Kometen entdecken.^[11][1]
2. To find something hidden or searched for, track down: einen Fehler in der Rechnung entdecken.^[11]
3. To notice unexpectedly, come across: ein Talent an sich entdecken, jemanden in der Menge entdecken.^[11]
4. (elevated, dated) To reveal, confide: jemandem ein Geheimnis entdecken; reflexive, “to open one's heart”.^[11][1]

Word family

• Entdecker
• Entdeckung

Related words

• decken
• aufdecken
• Dach
• English thatch

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 247
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 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. 8, 1360
5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 184
6. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 553
7. ^ a b 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. 8, 1340
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 236
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag