erläutern

Forms

erläutern (third-person singular present erläutert, past tense erläuterte, past participle erläutert, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German erliutern, inherited from Old High German irliuteren, a prefixed verb formed from German er- + läutern.^[2][3][1] Kluge places it with lauter “pure, clear”, in the same way as erklären belongs to klar.^[2]

The adjective is Middle High German lūter, Old High German hlūttar, from Proto-Germanic *hlūtraz (“clear, clean, pure”).^[4][1] The same word is Old Saxon hlūttar, Old English hlūttor and Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌿𐍄𐍂𐍃 (hlūtrs).^[4][1] Pfeifer compares Ancient Greek κλύζω (klúzō, “to wash, rinse”) and Lithuanian šlúoti (“to sweep”) and traces them all to a root Proto-Indo-European *k̑leu- (“to wash, make clean”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German irlūttaren “to purify, refine” is first recorded in Notker, about 1000.^[5][3] In his psalms silver refined seven times in the fire is sibenstunt irliutertez “seven times purified”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Until the 17th century the verb still meant “to make pure, clear or bright”, and in Middle High German it could be said of the body and the soul as well as of liquids.^[6][7][3] Sixteenth-century writers on medicine still used it of a juice that clears dim eyesight and of air washed clean by rain.^[8]

From Early New High German on, the sense was transferred to the mind: to make something understandable, to explain it at length, and also to take a position on a matter.^[6][9] By the time of Adelung the word was used only in this figurative sense, “to make comprehensible”.^[10] Goethe distinguished erläutern, to throw light on single passages, from erklären, to interpret the whole.^[8] The noun Erläuterung, already Middle High German, can also mean a commentary on a text.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Notker uses Old High German irlūttaren “to purify”.^[5][3]
• 12th century – A Middle High German sermon speaks of people made erlûtert in body and soul.^[3]
• 1264 – Berthold von Regensburg says that a single drop of water erliutert the wine in the chalice.^[3]
• Early New High German – The sense “to explain” appears.^[6][9]
• 17th century – The literal sense “to make pure” goes out of use.^[6]
• 1793 – Adelung records the verb only in the figurative sense.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To explain a complicated matter in more detail, to make it clear with examples or comments: Die Ärztin erläuterte ihm den Befund.^[11][1]

Word family

• Erläuterung

Related words

• läutern
• lauter
• erklären

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 255
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, 1929
4. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ 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, 894
9. ^ a b Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
10. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
11. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag