ermöglichen

Forms

ermöglichen (third-person singular present ermöglicht, past tense ermöglichte, past participle ermöglicht, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from German er- + möglich + -en, a verb meaning “to make possible” made from the adjective.^[1][2] Wiktionary's German edition describes it as a conversion of the adjective with the prefix.^[3] möglich, recorded from the 13th century as Middle High German mügelich, belongs to mögen in its old sense “to be able”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The revised Grimm dictionary's first quotation comes from a memorandum by Radetzky written in 1811 and printed in 1858: a bridgehead secures the connection with the army corps in Croatia and “makes possible” their influence on the operations of the main army.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Grimms' dictionary of 1862 entered the verb with the Latin gloss potestatem facere and the senses “make possible, practicable, easy”.^[6] Hermann Paul used it in his Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (1880), and in the 20th century it became an everyday word of written and spoken German.^[2]

Timeline

• 1811 – Radetzky uses the verb in a military memorandum.^[2]
• 1862 – The Grimms' dictionary records ermöglichen.^[6]
• 1880 – Hermann Paul uses it in his Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To make possible, to enable; to create the conditions for something: Das Stipendium ermöglichte ihr ein Studium in Wien.^[5][1][3]

Related words

• möglich
• mögen
• Möglichkeit

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1988
3. ^ a b 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. 630
5. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ 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, 916