fest

Forms

fest (strong nominative masculine singular fester, comparative fester, superlative am festesten)^[1] In Middle High German it was written veste or vest,^[2] and the spelling with ⟨v⟩ lasted long into New High German.^[3] The two-syllable form feste survives in northern colloquial speech and was still used by poets such as Goethe.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German veste, inherited from Old High German festi, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fast, inherited from Proto-Germanic *fastuz (“firm, fixed”).^[4][1][5] Old High German fasti is also recorded.^[6][7] The same adjective is Old Saxon fast, Old Norse fastr, Old English fæst (now English fast), Old Frisian fest and Dutch vast.^[4][8][5] Gothic has no such adjective, only the verb Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fastan, “to keep, hold firm”);^[8][9] for “firm” the Gothic Bible uses an adjective of another root.^[9]

The forms with umlaut and a final vowel are a High German feature: the other languages keep an older stem without umlaut, which Kluge takes to be a u-stem, remodelled in West Germanic as a ja-stem.^[4][5][9] The old adverb without umlaut is fast “almost”, which split off from the adjective in meaning.^[4][8][10]

Its origin outside Germanic is disputed.^[11] Pfeifer, Duden and Wahrig set up Proto-Indo-European *past- (“firm”) and compare Old Armenian հաստ (hast, “firm, dense”) and Sanskrit पस्त्य (pastyá, “dwelling”), taken as a “fixed abode”.^[8][12][13] Kroonen also links the Armenian word but separates the Sanskrit one, and derives the root from a compound of *peh₂ǵ- (“to become firm”) and *steh₂- (“to stand”).^[5][1] Kluge finds only the doubtful Armenian comparison and considers a link with the word for the foot (Fuß), or a formation from *sed- (“to sit”) like Ast and Nest.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German adjective appears in glosses from about 765 and then in Isidor, the Monsee fragments, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “firm, strong”, “fortified, secure”, “steadfast, lasting” and “settled, unchangeable”.^[14][15] Otfrid (863–871) says that the lake was firm under Christ's feet: er was io in thera fristi zi sinen fuazon festi.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German veste meant “not soft, hard, strong, lasting”, used of things such as a castle, a spear or steel, and figuratively of grief or of a steadfast warrior.^[2][12] Paul describes the core of the word as cohesion, either of the parts of one thing or of several things with one another, from which the ideas of immobility, permanence and resistance follow.^[3] Only in New High German did it become the regular opposite of “liquid” and “loose”.^[12][13] Schiller's Lied von der Glocke opens with Fest gemauert in der Erden (“walled fast in the earth”).^[3]

The adverb feste “very, heartily” stayed in normal use until the 18th century and is still heard in dialects and colloquial speech.^[8] Compounds with the adjective became frequent: festmachen “to conclude (a deal)” in the 18th century, and the reflexive sich festlegen “to commit oneself”.^[3] Old nouns formed from it are Feste “fortress”, Old High German festī “firmness, protection, stronghold”, preserved in names such as Veste Coburg, and Festung, formed from festinōn (“to fortify”).^[8][12][4] festigen and befestigen date from the 15th century,^[8] and Festland was used for “continent” in the 19th century.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 765 – The Old High German adjective appears in glosses.^[14]
• 863–871 – Otfrid uses it of the firm surface of the lake.^[11]
• 9th–10th century – festinunga, the ancestor of Festung, is recorded in Old High German.^[8]
• c. 1230 – Diu Crône uses veste of solid ground.^[11]
• 15th century – festigen and befestigen appear.^[8]
• 18th century – festmachen is used for concluding a deal.^[3]
• 19th century – Festland is used for “continent”.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. solid, hard, not liquid or gaseous: Nach der Operation darf er wieder feste Nahrung essen.^[7][1]
2. Stable, durable, sturdy: strong cloth or shoes, a solidly built house.^[7][1]
3. (dated, regional) Protected, proof against something;^[7] (military) fortified.^[7]
4. Tight, firmly attached, not loose: Die Schraube sitzt fest.^[7][1]
5. Strong, vigorous: a firm handshake, a hard blow;^[7] fest schlafen is to sleep soundly.^[7]
6. (colloquial, also feste) Heartily, properly: Wir haben feste gefeiert.^[7][8]
7. Resolute, determined: a firm look, a steady voice.^[7]
8. steadfast, unshakable: firm principles, a firm conviction.^[7][1]
9. Definite, binding: a firm promise, a fixed date.^[7]
10. Permanent, regular, constant: a fixed address, a steady job, fixed prices;^[7][1] ein fester Freund (colloquial) is a steady boyfriend.^[7][1]
11. (Austria, colloquial) Good, proper, big.^[1]

Word family

• Feste
• Festung
• festigen
• befestigen
• Festigkeit
• Festland
• festlegen
• feststellen
• festhalten
• festmachen

Related words

• Fest
• flüssig
• gasförmig
• fast
• fasten

Usage notes

The noun Fest “celebration” is unrelated: it was borrowed in the 13th century from Latin fēstum (“feast day”),^[4][8] and the Grimms note that it was once pronounced with a different vowel.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 326
3. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
4. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 289
5. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 764
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ 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, 1558
10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1560
11. ^ 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, 378
12. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 265
13. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
14. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
15. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 101
16. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1561