fahren

Forms

fahren (class 6 strong, third-person singular present fährt, past tense fuhr, past participle gefahren, past subjunctive führe, auxiliary haben or sein)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German varn, inherited from Old High German faran, inherited from Proto-Germanic *faraną (“to go, travel”).^[2][1][3] The same verb is Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍂𐌰𐌽 (faran), Old Norse fara, Old English faran (now English fare), Old Frisian fara and Old Saxon faran.^[2][3][4]

Outside Germanic it is compared with Ancient Greek πορεύω (poreúō, “I carry, (middle) I go”), and further with Latin portō (“to carry, bring”), Ancient Greek περάω (peráō, “to pass through”), πόρος (póros, “passage, ford”) and Old Church Slavonic пьрати (pĭrati, “to soar”).^[2][4] They belong to the root Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to pierce, bring across”); whether they are separate developments of it or more closely related cannot be decided.^[2] Kroonen describes the verb as an o-grade intensive *pór-e-, and the preterite fuor as a secondary formation.^[3] The causative is führen, and Fähre, Fuhre and Furt belong to the same family.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German faran is found from the 8th century, first in the Isidor translation (ih faru dhir fora “I go before you”), then in the Tatian and many other texts; it meant any movement from place to place: “to go, travel, move, fly, flow”, and also “to fare, behave”.^[6][7][8] In the second Merseburg charm, Phol and Wodan uuorun zi holza “rode to the wood”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The verb was originally the most general word for every kind of movement, covering going, riding, flying and swimming, and only gradually narrowed to travel by vehicle or ship.^[4][9] The old sense survives in fahrendes Volk “travelling people”, fahrende Habe “movable goods”, in Vorfahr and in religious language: gen Himmel gefahren “ascended into heaven”, zur Hölle fahren.^[9][5] It is also still used of sudden quick movements, as of lightning or a hand.^[5]

In Middle High German and Middle Low German, with the idea of motion faded, it meant “to behave, live, fare”, which survives in mit etwas gut fahren “to do well with something” and in Hoffart and Wohlfahrt.^[5][9] Today it is used of travel by car, train or ship, but of aircraft one says fliegen, although Ballon fahren remains.^[9][4] Fahrer, recorded from the 18th century for a carter, came to mean a motor-car driver around 1900.^[4] English has borrowed Fahrvergnügen “the pleasure of driving” (1990).^[10]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German faran in the Isidor translation.^[2][6]
• c. 830 – Used in the Tatian.^[6]
• 10th century – The Merseburg charm (manuscript) uses it of Phol and Wodan riding.^[6]
• 15th century – fahrlässig is formed from the phrase varn lāʒen “to let go”.^[4]
• 18th century – Fahrer “carter” and fahrig “restless” in its modern sense.^[4]
• c. 1900 – Fahrer comes to mean the driver of a motor car.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of a vehicle: to move, run; of public transport, to run on a route: Der Bus fährt alle zehn Minuten.^[1][11]
2. Of a person: to travel by vehicle or ship, to go by car or train.^[1][11]
3. To drive, steer (a vehicle): Sie fährt einen Lastwagen.^[1][11]
4. To take or transport someone or something by vehicle.^[1]
5. To pass the hand or an object quickly over or into something.^[11]
6. To make a sudden, quick movement; of a person or animal, to dart.^[11][1][5]
7. With gut or schlecht and mit: to fare well or badly with something.^[9][5]

Word family

• Fahrer
• Fahrt
• fahrend
• fahrig
• fahrlässig
• Fahrnis
• Fahrzeug
• erfahren
• verfahren
• fortfahren
• zerfahren
• wallfahren
• willfahren
• Vorfahr
• Hoffart
• Wohlfahrt

Related words

• Abfuhr
• Fährte
• Fuhrmann
• führen
• Fähre
• Fuhre
• Furt
• Porto
• English fare

Usage notes

Fahren takes sein when it means movement and haben when it has an object, as in driving a vehicle.^[1] An unrelated verb of the same spelling, Old High German fārēn, Middle High German vāren “to lie in wait for, strive after”, belonged to the noun that survives in Gefahr; it has died out.^[12] Fahr wohl “farewell” was a frequent parting greeting;^[9] Paul takes it as a loan translation of English farewell.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 272
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag
6. ^ 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. 9, 46
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 56
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
12. ^ 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, 52