Etymologically
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fünf

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Pronunciation

  • /fʏnf/[1]
  • Colloquial, regional: /fʏmf/[1]

Forms

fünf (cardinal number; usually uninflected)[2][3] Used alone, the numeral was inflected: fünfe, dative fünfen.[4] Inflected forms stood before an omitted noun and in prepositional phrases until the 19th century, and became unusual towards the 20th.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vünf, inherited from Old High German fimf, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fimf, inherited from Proto-Germanic *fimf, inherited from Proto-Indo-European *pénkʷe.[5][6][1] The same numeral is Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐌼𐍆 (fimf), Old Norse fimm, Old English fīf, Old Frisian fīf and Old Saxon fīf, and today Dutch vijf, English five, Swedish fem and Icelandic fimm.[5][6][7] Outside Germanic it corresponds to Sanskrit पञ्च (páñca), Ancient Greek πέντε (pénte), Latin quīnque, Old Irish cóic and Lithuanian penkì.[5][6] Kluge adds Old Church Slavonic пѧть (pętĭ), which Pfeifer regards as a different formation, originally “a group of five”.[5][6]

The Germanic form is irregular: the expected outcome of the Indo-European word would have /hw/ in the middle.[7][1] Kluge and Kroonen explain the /f/ by a change of the labiovelar to a labial after a resonant in words beginning with a labial, as in *wulfaz (“wolf”);[5][7] Pfeifer and the Duden speak of assimilation of the second syllable to the first, before the Germanic sound shift, while in Latin the first syllable was assimilated to the second.[6][8]

In Old High German the vowel was /i/, with funf in Notker.[6][9] Pfeifer and the EWA describe the Middle High German ⟨ü⟩ as rounding;[6][9] Paul holds that the umlaut first belonged only to the inflected form, funfi in Old High German, which is why colloquial forms of fünfzehn and fünfzig keep the plain vowel.[10] Pfeifer, Wahrig and the Duden consider Finger and Faust possibly related, from the five fingers of a hand.[6][11][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German fimf is recorded in glosses before the end of the 8th century and in many texts.[12][9] The Benedictine Rule (790–802) has fimfim pletirun “with five leaves”, and the Tatian (about 830) says of the ten virgins fimui fon then uuarun dumbo inti fimui uuiso “five of them were foolish and five wise”.[3]

Semantic evolution

Forms with /n/ are found from the start and have prevailed since the 13th century; forms with /m/ continue into the 15th.[3] The rounding is written now and then from the 11th century, regularly from the 13th.[3] Like the other numerals from four to twelve, Old High German fimf was inflected as an i-stem when it stood alone or after its noun, as in Otfrid's porzicha finfi “five porches”.[9]

The five senses are named already in Old High German.[10] As a school mark eine Fünf has meant “poor, deficient” since the early 20th century.[10] Phrases include fünf(e) gerade sein lassen “not to be too particular” (16th century) and das fünfte Rad am Wagen “a fifth wheel, someone superfluous”.[10] Compounds such as fünfunddreißig have been written as one word since the 16th century, though separate spelling lasted into the 19th.[10]

Timeline

  • 790–802 – fimf is used in the Old High German Benedictine Rule.[3]
  • c. 830 – The Tatian has fimui “five” in the parable of the virgins.[3]
  • 11th century – Notker writes funf; the rounded vowel begins to be written.[6][3]
  • 13th century – The rounded vünf becomes regular, and forms with /n/ predominate.[6][3]
  • 15th century – The last forms with /m/ are recorded.[3]
  • 16th century – fünf gerade sein lassen is recorded.[10]
  • Early 20th century – Fünf is used as a school mark.[10]

Meanings

Numeral

  1. five, the cardinal number 5: fünf Äpfel.[2][1]
  2. (elliptical) Five o'clock: Wir treffen uns um fünf.[13]
  3. (elliptical) Five years old.[13]

Word family

  • Fünf
  • Fünfer
  • fünfte
  • Fünftel
  • fünfzehn
  • fünfzig
  • Finger
  • Faust
  • English five

Usage notes

Es ist fünf vor zwölf “it is five to twelve” means that it is high time to act.[2] Fünf gerade sein lassen is “to turn a blind eye, not be too strict”.[2][10] Colloquial fuffzehn and fuffzig continue Early New High German funffzehen and funffzig.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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, 1267
  4. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 323
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  7. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  9. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 239
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org