Etymologically
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folgen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfɔlɡŋ̩/, /ˈfɔlɡən/[1]

Forms

folgen (third-person singular present folgt, past tense folgte, past participle gefolgt, auxiliary sein)[1] Until the 16th century the perfect was formed with haben and sein about equally often; since the 17th century haben has been rarer and mostly limited to the sense “to obey”.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German volgen, inherited from Old High German folgēn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *folgēn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *fulgāną (“to follow”).[3][1] Old High German also had a rarer folgōn (9th century).[4] The same word is Old Saxon folgon, Old Norse fylgja, Old English folgian and Old Frisian folgia, and today Dutch volgen, English follow and Swedish följa;[3][4][2] Gothic used 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃𐍄𐌾𐌰𐌽 (laistjan) instead (see leisten).[3][4][2]

Its further origin is unclear, and no certain relatives outside Germanic are known.[3][4][5] Welsh ôl (“track”) would fit in meaning but is ambiguous in form; it would point to Proto-Indo-European *polgʰ-.[3][4] Within Germanic, Kluge finds a link with the verb behind befehlen, Proto-Germanic *felhaną, most satisfying, from a root Proto-Indo-European *pel-, but notes that this is only a root etymology and that the meanings do not really match.[3] Pfeifer reports the same idea with a development “to cover, protect, join someone's following”.[4] Orel compares Proto-Slavic *pь̀lzati (“to creep, crawl”).[1] Pfeifer also doubts that the verb was derived from a noun, since Folge is recorded late and is more likely formed from the verb.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German folgēn is first recorded in glosses of about 765, and then in the Benedictine Rule, Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and the Physiologus, meaning “to follow, accompany, serve, obey, agree with”.[6][7] The Tatian (about 830) says of Jesus coming down from the mountain: folgetun imo manege menigi “many crowds followed him”.[2]

Semantic evolution

The spatial sense “to go after” was transferred to succession in time (am folgenden Tag) and to logical consequence (daraus folgt, dass …).[5][8] From the legal notion of following one's lord to war, Old High German already had the sense “to comply with, agree, obey”; the phrase Folge leisten first referred to obeying a court summons.[5] Paul also lists “to take the direction shown”, “to imitate” and “to do what someone advises”, as in einer Einladung folgen, and the regional Folgt schön! said to children for “be good”.[8]

Derivatives date from various periods: Folge appears in the compound selbfolga “sect” (11th century), folglich and folgsam in the 17th century, befolgen in the 18th century, and folgenschwer in the 18th century as a loan translation of French gros de conséquences.[4][5] Auf dem Fuß folgen “to follow immediately” goes back to Middle High German ze fuozen volgen.[8] Recently it has been used for following an account on social media.[1]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German folgēn appears in glosses.[6]
  • c. 830 – The Tatian uses the verb for following Jesus.[2]
  • 9th century – A rarer form folgōn “to obey” is recorded.[4]
  • 11th century – selbfolga “sect” contains the noun Folge.[4]
  • 16th century – The perfect is still formed with haben and sein about equally often.[2]
  • 17th century – folglich and folgsam appear.[4][5]
  • 18th century – befolgen and folgenschwer appear.[5]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To go after, follow someone or something: der Hund folgte ihr bis zur Tür.[9][1]
  2. To come later, to join: ihr Mann folgte ihr nach Kanada.[9]
  3. To follow with understanding, to attend to: einer Debatte folgen.[9][1]
  4. To act as someone does, to go along with: einem Vorbild folgen.[9][8]
  5. (with haben) To obey: der Junge hat nicht gefolgt.[9][1]
  6. To come next in order or time: auf den Winter folgt der Frühling.[9][8]
  7. To result logically: daraus folgt, dass ….[9][1]
  8. (social media) To follow an account.[1]

Word family

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 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, 722
  3. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 308
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 108
  8. ^ a b c d e 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 g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag