errichten

Forms

errichten (third-person singular present errichtet, past tense errichtete, past participle errichtet, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is from German er- + richten, a prefixed form of the verb meaning “to set straight, to direct”.^[2][3][4] Old High German already had irrihten (“to set up, raise; to instruct”) from about 800, but the verb is hardly recorded in Middle High German and early New High German, and becomes frequent again only in the 17th and 18th centuries.^[5][3][6] Wiktionary traces it through a Middle High German stage, errihten, to Proto-West Germanic *uʀrihtijan,^[1] but Köbler gives that Middle High German form only as an inferred one.^[7]

The base verb richten, Old High German rihten, Old Saxon rihtian, Old English rihtan, Old Norse rétta, Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (garaihtjan), from Proto-Germanic *rihtijaną, is a factitive verb “to make straight” formed from the adjective recht.^[2][3][1] Köbler traces the family to Proto-Indo-European *reǵ- (“straight; to direct, stretch”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German Benedictine Rule (790–802) has si errihtit ze himile hleitarpaum, “it sets up a ladder to heaven”.^[5] Old High German irrihten meant “to set up, raise, erect”, and with a personal object “to instruct someone, explain something to someone”; it occurs in the Benedictine Rule, the Murbach Hymns, Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and the glosses.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

According to Paul, the oldest sense survives in phrases such as setting up a stone column or a cross, from which the verb was extended to founding a bishopric or a university.^[10] The 18th century used it in combinations no longer current: Schiller wrote of establishing an acquaintance or a treaty, and Kant of setting up a hypothesis.^[10][11] The Grimms note that the plain physical sense “to raise up” was rare, the usual word being aufrichten.^[11] Adelung (1793) calls it a word of elevated style, used mainly in figurative senses: a monument, a bishopric, an academy, a treaty.^[12]

In geometry one erects a perpendicular on a line, a use recorded from the 1760s, and in legal language ein Testament errichten is to draw up a will in due form.^[5][6][11]

Timeline

• 790–802 – errihtit “sets up” in the Old High German Benedictine Rule.^[5]
• 1414 – An isolated record in an Austrian legal text, of setting up a boundary stone.^[5]
• 17th century – The verb is in use again, meaning “to set up, form”.^[3][5]
• 1720 – A German Robinson Crusoe has the hero put up a large tent.^[5]
• 1768 – First record of erecting perpendicular lines in a building manual.^[5]
• 1793 – Adelung labels it a word of elevated style.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To build or erect a tall structure: Die Stadt errichtet ein neues Rathaus.^[6][1]
2. To set up or put together: ein Zelt, eine Bühne errichten;^[6][1] (geometry) to erect a perpendicular.^[6][1]
3. To establish or found (a state, an institution, a system): eine Diktatur errichten.^[6][1]
4. (law) To draw up formally: ein Testament errichten.^[6]

Word family

• Errichtung
• wiedererrichten

Related words

• richten
• aufrichten
• recht
• Richter

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 766
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 2094
6. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 260
10. ^ a b Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ 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, 946
12. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 1, 1931