entstehen

Forms

entstehen (irregular strong, third-person singular present entsteht, past tense entstand, past participle entstanden, past subjunctive entstände or entstünde, auxiliary sein)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German entstēn, inherited from Old High German intstantan, a prefixed verb from German ent- + stehen.^[1][2][3] Related formations are Middle Low German entstān, Middle Dutch ontstaen, Dutch ontstaan and Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (andstandan, “to resist”).^[2]

The Old High German verb is recorded only with the meaning “to perceive, understand”, while the meaning “to begin to exist” belongs to a new formation of Central German and Middle Low German with an inchoative force, which the written standard later adopted.^[2] Kluge traces the prefix in most verbs to Proto-Germanic *anda- (“against”), but its inchoative function, as in this verb and entbrennen, to one of the other prefixes that merged with it.^[4] The Duden dictionary likewise says that in verbs of beginning an old Old High German in- mixed with the prefix.^[5]

The base verb goes back to Old High German stān and stēn, beside stantan, and to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *stā- (“to stand”), also found in Latin stō (“to stand”) and Ancient Greek ἵστημι (hístēmi, “to make stand”).^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German intstantan appears at the end of the 8th century in the Isidor translation and later in Otfrid, meaning “to understand, perceive, recognise”.^[9][10][2] The meaning “to come about” is first found in the early 12th century in the Middle Franconian rhymed Bible, and Herbort, after 1190, says of the dawn so der morgen enstat “when the morning breaks”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German used the verb in several senses: “to perceive”, “to begin, arise”, “to rise again” (from death, or of the sun), and the separative “to be lacking, to fail someone”.^[2][11] The sense “to perceive” went out of use in the middle of the 16th century, and the inchoative sense of Central and Low German became the main one in the written language.^[2]

The sense “to be lacking, to be withheld from” lasted until the middle of the 19th century: Lessing wrote kann mir ihre Vergebung nicht entstehen “her forgiveness cannot fail me”, and Schiller ihre Hülfe wird uns nicht entstehn “their help will not fail us”.^[2][12][13] Adelung, around 1800, still described both uses: with sein for “to begin to exist” and with haben for “to be lacking”.^[14] Danish undstå was borrowed from the German verb.^[2]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German intstantan “to perceive” appears in the Isidor translation.^[9][2]
• Early 12th century – First record of the sense “to arise, come about”, in the Middle Franconian rhymed Bible.^[2]
• After 1190 – Herbort uses the verb for “to be lacking”.^[2]
• Mid-16th century – The sense “to perceive” goes out of use.^[2]
• 1793 – Adelung records the verb with sein “to begin” and with haben “to be lacking”.^[14]
• Mid-19th century – Last records of the sense “to be lacking”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To begin to exist; to come into being, arise, be created or produced: Am Stadtrand entsteht eine neue Siedlung.^[13][1]
2. To develop or result from something: Aus dem Streit entstand eine Freundschaft.^[1][13]
3. To arise for someone, to be incurred (of costs or disadvantages): Dem Mieter entstehen keine weiteren Kosten.^[13]
4. (obsolete) To be lacking, to be withheld from someone.^[13][12]

Word family

• Entstehung

Related words

• stehen
• verstehen
• Dutch ontstaan

Usage notes

The verb is conjugated with sein: es ist entstanden.^[1][13] The nominalised infinitive is used in the phrase im Entstehen begriffen sein “to be in the making”.^[13][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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, 1508
3. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
4. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 247
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 236
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 880
7. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 817
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 310
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
13. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
14. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf