Etymologically
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erzählen

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Pronunciation

  • /ɛɐ̯ˈt͡sɛːlən/, /ɛɐ̯ˈt͡seːlən/, /ɛɐ̯ˈt͡seːl̩n/[1]

Forms

erzählen (third-person singular present erzählt, past tense erzählte, past participle erzählt, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German erzellen, inherited from Old High German irzellen, formed from German er- + zählen.[2][3][1] The simple verb is Old High German zellen, from Proto-Germanic *taljaną (“to count, tell”).[4] The same prefixed verb is found in Middle Low German ertellen, Middle Dutch ertellen and Old English ātellan.[5]

Kluge describes the path of the meaning: the verb first meant “to count up”, then “to recite in order, report”, and the present sense arose from this by generalisation.[2] In the same family the sense “count up” led to “tell, report” more than once, as in English tell, which means both, the noun tale and the Low German verb vertellen.[6] Modern German kept only the arithmetical sense for the simple verb, and the sense “tell” passed to the prefixed verb alone.[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German irzellen is recorded at the end of the 8th century in Isidor, where the years of Christ's coming are “counted” (iaar arzelidiu, for Latin anni numerantur), and in Otfrid (863/71), who cannot “enumerate” all the blind and lame that Jesus healed.[5][4] Its senses were “to tell, report”, “to count, enumerate”, “to describe” and “to consider”.[4][7]

Semantic evolution

“To enumerate” was the main use until the 17th century and became obsolete in the 18th;[5] Lessing could still write of someone who die verschiedenen Arten der Diamante erzehlet.[8] In Early New High German legal language it also meant “to proclaim publicly”, and Luther writes Die Himel erzelen die Ehre Gottes (Psalm 19:2), a use Adelung already calls obsolete outside the Bible.[8][9] The general sense “to relate, give an account”, first of speech, then also of written stories, true or invented, is the one that survived.[8]

Erzählung is recorded from 1461; late Middle High German erzelunge still also meant “enumeration”, and today the word also names a simple form of narrative literature.[8][3][6] Erzähler appears in the 17th century.[3][6] Regional speech also says verzählen or derzählen.[8]

Timeline

  • End of the 8th century – Old High German irzellen in Isidor.[5][4]
  • 863/71 – Otfrid uses it for “enumerate”.[5]
  • 1060/65 – Middle High German erzelen in the Vienna Genesis.[5]
  • 1461 – First record of Erzählung.[8]
  • 17th century – Erzähler appears.[3]
  • 18th century – The sense “to enumerate” becomes obsolete.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To narrate, to tell a story vividly in speech or writing: den Enkeln eine Gespenstergeschichte erzählen.[10][1]
  2. To report, to give an account: sie erzählte von ihrer Reise nach Island.[10][1]
  3. To tell, to confide something: er erzählt seinem Bruder alles.[10][1]
  4. (colloquial, regional) To talk a lot, to talk nonsense.[1]

Word family

  • Erzähler
  • Erzählung

Usage notes

Das kannst du deiner Großmutter erzählen (colloquial) means “I don't believe that”, and dem werde ich was erzählen! “I'll give him a piece of my mind”.[8][10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 258
  3. ^ a b c d e Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  5. ^ 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, 2331
  6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 243
  7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 405
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  10. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag