entwickeln

Forms

entwickeln (third-person singular present entwickelt, past tense entwickelte, past participle entwickelt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from German ent- + wickeln at the end of the 16th century.^[2][3] Kluge holds that it was formed under the influence of Latin explicō (“to unfold, explain”) and French évoluer, which is why it was hardly ever used for literal unwinding.^[4] Wiktionary calls it a calque of développer.^[1] The same formation is Dutch ontwikkelen.^[5]

The base verb is derived from Wickel, a diminutive of Middle High German wicke (“bundle of fibres, wick”), related to English wick and traced to Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to weave, knot”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1592, is reflexive: Ulenberg speaks of a doubt daraus du dich nicht kanst entwickeln (“from which you cannot extricate yourself”).^[3][7] The Grimms found it first in a dictionary in Stieler (1691).^[5]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense “to unwrap, disentangle” was used only sparingly, as the opposite of einwickeln, mostly in figurative phrases.^[2][7] In the 18th century the idea of disentangling something tangled led to “to set out, explain (a complex matter)” and “to solve a riddle”;^[2][4][7] Goethe says that he likes to entwickeln charades and riddles.^[2][4][7] The verb became widely recorded only in the second half of the 18th century, after the transferred senses had formed.^[3]

The reflexive spread to gradual formation and growth, so that talents, organisms and situations entwickeln sich.^[4][7] Mathematicians entwickeln an equation, and in the 19th century photography adopted it, after English “develop”, with Entwickler for the developing fluid around 1860.^[7][2] Around 1800 Campe proposed Entwicklung as a German word for Evolution.^[2]

Timeline

• 1592 – First record, in the reflexive sense “to extricate oneself”.^[3]
• 1691 – Stieler lists the verb in his dictionary.^[5]
• 18th century – The senses “to explain” and “to solve” appear.^[2]
• Second half of the 18th century – The verb becomes widely recorded.^[3]
• c. 1800 – Campe proposes Entwicklung for Evolution.^[2]
• c. 1860 – Entwickler names the photographic developer.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To arise gradually, to emerge by stages: aus dem Streit entwickelte sich eine Freundschaft.^[8][1]
2. (reflexive) Of a living being or plant, to grow and mature; of a process, to progress: das Geschäft entwickelt sich gut.^[8]
3. To bring to a higher level;^[8] (reflexive) to turn gradually into something new: das Dorf hat sich zu einer Kleinstadt entwickelt.^[8]
4. To produce or give off in a process: der Ofen entwickelt viel Wärme.^[8]
5. To show or develop a skill or quality: Geduld entwickeln.^[8][1]
6. To work out a product, method or plan: ein neues Medikament entwickeln.^[7][9]
7. To set out in detail, to expound: einen Gedanken entwickeln.^[8]
8. (photography) To make the image on a film visible with chemicals.^[8][9]
9. (military) To deploy troops for battle.^[8]

Word family

• Entwicklung
• weiterentwickeln
• Entwickler

Related words

• wickeln
• einwickeln
• abwickeln
• Wickel

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ 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, p. 8, 1530
4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 249
5. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 658
6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 932
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org