erfolgen

Forms

erfolgen (third-person singular present erfolgt, past tense erfolgte, past participle erfolgt, auxiliary sein)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ervolgen (“to overtake, reach, attain”), inherited from Old High German irfolgēn (“to persecute”), formed with the prefix er- from folgen.^[2][3][4][1] The same formation is Middle Low German ervolgen and Middle Dutch ervolgen.^[3]

The simple verb, folgēn (8th century), goes back to Proto-Germanic *fulgāną (“to follow”), also found in Old Norse fylgja, Old Frisian folgia and Old English folgian, whence English follow.^[5][2] In its place the Bible translation of Wulfila uses 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (laistjan).^[5] Its origin outside Germanic is unclear.^[5][2] A link with Welsh ôl (“track, trace”), which would point to Proto-Indo-European *pelgʰ-, fits the meaning but is ambiguous in its sounds and stands alone.^[5][2] Kluge finds a connection with befehlen the most satisfying from the Germanic side, though the meanings do not match well, and Pfeifer reports a similar proposal by Falk and Torp, with a development “cover” – “protect” – “join someone's following”.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German verb is recorded once, in the Monsee fragments of the Gospel of Matthew (late 8th century), rendering the Latin word for persecution in Matthew 13:21.^[3][6] Middle High German ervolgen meant to overtake, catch, reach, attain or obtain (also by a lawsuit), and reflexively to come true or happen;^[4][7][3] Köbler's earliest text is Hartmann's Erec (about 1185).^[4][7][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the verb was mostly transitive, “to catch up with, reach, attain”, and until the 16th century it was frequent in legal texts; these senses declined in Early New High German, and in modern German the intransitive “to happen as a result” prevails.^[3][8] Luther played on the prefixes: wenn erfolgen so leicht were als verfolgen (“if attaining were as easy as persecuting”).^[9][10] Paul explains that the prefix makes the verb express the arrival of a result, while the idea of sequence in time recedes.^[9]

Adelung (1793) gives it the auxiliary sein and the senses “to follow upon something” and “to follow as an effect from a cause”, and notes that Upper German uses it for the simple verb in almost every case.^[11] In letters erfolgt long meant “enclosed herewith”, and Goethe wrote that two requested books would erfolgen soon.^[9][10] Today it often serves as a faded verb in formal style, where a sentence about a payment “taking place” simply means that it is made.^[7]

The noun Erfolg is a back-formation from the verb.^[12][9] Kluge dates it to the 17th century and suggests the influence of French succéder and succès, while Paul, following the Swiss dictionary, puts it at the beginning of the 16th century; its sense “success” has prevailed since the middle of the 18th century.^[12][9][2]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German irfolgēn in the Monsee fragments.^[6][3]
• c. 1185 – Middle High German ervolgen in Hartmann's Erec.^[4]
• 16th century – Luther contrasts erfolgen with verfolgen.^[9]
• 17th century – The back-formation Erfolg becomes established.^[12][2]
• 1793 – Adelung records the senses “to follow upon” and “to result”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To happen, take place, occur, especially as the result of something: Die Antwort erfolgte sofort.^[7][1][13]
2. (formal) With a verbal noun as subject, a faded use saying that the action is carried out: Die Zahlung erfolgt per Überweisung.^[7][13]
3. (dated) To follow, ensue as a consequence: daraus erfolgte nichts Gutes.^[11][1]

Word family

• Erfolg

Related words

• folgen
• verfolgen
• Folge

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 f g 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, 1723
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 308
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 803
11. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
12. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 254
13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org