fördern

Forms

fördern (third-person singular present fördert, past tense förderte, past participle gefördert, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vürdern, inherited from Old High German furdiren, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *furþrijan, a verb derived from the comparative adverb fürder “further, onward”, so that it meant “to bring forward”.^[2][3][4] The same formation is Middle Low German vȫrderen, Middle Dutch vorderen and Old English fyrþran.^[2][3] The adverb is furdir, vürder, related to English further and a comparative of fort.^[3][4]

The modern ⟨ö⟩ goes back to a variant “förder”, probably through mixing with the related vorder, the base of fordern, and perhaps supported by Middle Low German forms.^[1] The use of “fördern” and “fordern” overlapped;^[5] Middle High German and Early New High German also had vudern and “vüdern” with loss of the “-r-”, and “fürdern” lasted into the 18th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German furdiren is found only in glosses, from the first quarter of the 9th century, meaning “to advance someone, raise, appoint, ordain as a priest”.^[6][7] The revised Grimm dictionary quotes the 9th-century gloss proueatur furdrit “let him be promoted”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German it meant “to move forward, hasten, help”, and it was also used of place, “to carry somewhere”.^[3][8] From the 16th century miners used it for bringing ore and coal up out of the ground.^[3][4] Older senses such as “to hasten” (sich fördern “to hurry”, Schiller) and the intransitive “to make progress” (meine Arbeit hat gut gefördert, Goethe) are now out of use, and befördern has taken over “to send, transport”.^[8] The general sense “to support someone, to help something on” is the main one today.^[8][9]

The miners' sense passed into neighbouring languages: Polish fołdrować “to mine salt, ore or coal” is recorded from 1450, and Czech fedrovat is used colloquially.^[10]

Timeline

• First quarter of the 9th century – Old High German furdiren in glosses.^[7]
• c. 1170 – Middle High German vürdern in the Rolandslied.^[11]
• 1450 – Polish fołdrować “to mine” is borrowed from the mining sense.^[10]
• 16th century – Miners use it for bringing ore to the surface, and befördern is formed.^[3][4]
• 18th century – befördern takes on the sense “to promote in rank”, and fürdern goes out of use.^[3][5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To support, promote, help someone or something to develop: Die Stadt fördert junge Musiker.^[9][1]
2. To fund, give financial help to a project.^[1][9]
3. To strengthen, encourage a tendency or process: Bewegung fördert die Verdauung.^[9][12]
4. (mining) To extract, bring up from the ground: In dieser Grube wurde früher Kohle gefördert.^[9][1]
5. (technology) To convey, move to a place: Eine Pumpe fördert das Wasser in den Tank.^[9]

Word family

• Förderung
• förderlich
• Förderer
• befördern
• Beförderung

Related words

• fordern
• fürder
• fürderhin
• vorder
• fort
• English further

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. 310
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 281
5. ^ a b c d 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. 9, 750
6. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 118
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
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. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org