Etymologically
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erlauben

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Pronunciation

  • [ʔɛɐ̯ˈlaʊ̯bm̩], [ʔɛɐ̯ˈlaʊ̯bn̩], [ʔɛɐ̯ˈlaʊ̯bən][1]
  • Austria: [ʔæɫˈɑɔbm̩][1]

Forms

erlauben (third-person singular present erlaubt, past tense erlaubte, past participle erlaubt, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German erlouben, inherited from Old High German irlouben, inherited from Proto-Germanic *uzlaubijaną (“to allow”).[2][1][3] The same verb is Gothic 𐌿𐍃𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌾𐌰𐌽 (uslaubjan), Old English ālīefan and Middle Low German erlȫven.[2][4][5] Its old abstract noun is Urlaub, originally “permission to leave”.[2][6]

Pfeifer, Duden and the revised Grimm start from a sense “to like, approve” and place the verb with lieb, loben and glauben, from Proto-Indo-European *leubʰ- (“to like, desire”).[4][7][5] Kluge instead finds the closest match in sense in Latvian ļaut (“to allow, permit”), which belongs with Lithuanian liáuti (“to stop”), and considers a root Proto-Indo-European *lēu- (“to let go”), possible but not secure.[2] Wahrig stresses that neither the verb nor its abstract noun has anything to do with Laub “foliage”.[6]

In New High German the Upper German form without umlaut prevailed over the Central German erleuben, which Luther used.[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German Benedictine Rule (790–802) renders Latin non licere “not to be permitted” with nalles erlaubpan.[5] Old High German irlouben meant “to permit, allow, give way”, in the Benedictine Rule, Tatian, the Würzburg Confession, Williram and the glosses.[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Paul gives the original sense as “to approve”.[8] Middle High German erlouben also meant “to give leave, dismiss”, and early New High German still used it for letting someone depart or releasing someone from service.[10][11] Adelung (1793) records that this sense had long been obsolete in High German.[12] Luther's Bible has the umlauted form, as in Matthew 8:21, erleube mir, das ich hin gehe, “allow me to go first”.[13]

The reflexive sich etwas erlauben is “to take the liberty of something” and also “to afford something”.[14] The noun Erlaubnis is recorded from about 1300 (Pfeifer) or 1398 (Paul); Luther's synonym Erlaub gave way to Verlaub.[4][8]

Timeline

  • 790–802 – erlaubpan in the Old High German Benedictine Rule.[5]
  • c. 1060 – Williram uses erlôibet in his commentary on the Song of Songs.[5]
  • 1290 – A charter permits the Jews of a town to build a bathhouse.[5]
  • c. 1300 – First record of Erlaubnis.[4]
  • 16th century – Luther writes erleuben.[7][13]
  • 1793 – Adelung calls the sense “give leave to go” obsolete.[12]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To allow or permit (someone, with the dative, something): Ihre Mutter erlaubt ihr den Ausflug nicht.[14][1]
  2. To make possible: wenn es die Zeit erlaubt.[14]
  3. (reflexive) To take the liberty of: Ich erlaube mir, Sie kurz zu unterbrechen.;[14] (colloquial) Erlauben Sie mal!, an indignant protest.[14]
  4. (reflexive) To afford: sich ein neues Fahrrad erlauben.[14]

Word family

  • Erlaubnis
  • erlaubt

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 255
  3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  4. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f 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, 1920
  6. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  7. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 207
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  12. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 1914
  13. ^ 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, 891
  14. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag