Etymologically
Log in

früh

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 17:00. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /fʁyː/, [fʁ̥yː], [fryː][1]

Forms

früh (strong nominative masculine singular früher, comparative früher, superlative am frühesten or am frühsten)[1] The fuller form frühe is now rare.[2][1] Early New High German still had fruo and the weakened frue, which Bavarian keeps, while the umlauted früe of Luther and the dictionaries of the 16th century prevailed.[3] The h stands for an older j, as in Middle High German vrüeje.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vrüeje, inherited from Old High German fruoi, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *frō (“early”): the Old High German adjective was formed from the adverb fruo, Middle High German vruo, which is the older word.[4][5][1][6] The word is found only in German and Dutch: Old Saxon frō, Middle Dutch vroe, Dutch vroeg.[7][5][6] The Grimms' dictionary considered the Low German and Dutch words borrowed from High German.[3]

Outside Germanic it is related to Ancient Greek πρωΐ (prōḯ, “early”) and Sanskrit प्रातर् (prātár, “early in the morning”), from Proto-Indo-European *prō- (“early, in the morning”), literally “in front, ahead (in time)”.[7][5][4] The EWA notes that the adverb is formally identical with Latin prō (“before, for”), an old instrumental form.[6] Kluge and Pfeifer trace this to the root Proto-Indo-European *per- (“forward, first”), also seen in vor and für.[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The adverb fruo is recorded before 800 in glosses, and then in the Murbach Hymns, the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “early, in the morning, in good time, soon”.[6][8] The adjective fruoi appears in glosses of about 800, meaning “early, before dawn, premature”.[9][10] About 830 the Tatian has fruo in morgan “early in the morning”.[11]

Semantic evolution

The word first referred to the time of day.[5][12] The sources differ on when it was extended: the Duden says it was already applied to the year and to a person's life in Old High German, while Wahrig holds that it became the general opposite of spät only in New High German.[4][12] Paul cites fruhes Obst “early fruit” from Stieler and Schiller's früh übt sich, was ein Meister werden will in Wilhelm Tell.[13] It also came to mean “premature”, as in ein früher Tod.[13]

The comparative früher took on the independent sense “formerly, in the past”, and früher oder später “sooner or later” replaced the older früh oder spät of the 18th century.[5][13] The adverb still means “in the morning” in morgen früh, already Middle High German morgen vrüeje.[13][1] Important derivatives are Frühling and Frühstück, and the noun Frühe, Old High German fruoī (about 1000).[5][4]

Timeline

  • Before 800 – Old High German fruo appears in glosses.[6]
  • c. 800 – The adjective fruoi is recorded.[5][9]
  • c. 830 – The Tatian has fruo in morgan.[11]
  • c. 1000 – The noun fruoī “early morning” is used by Notker.[5][9]
  • 16th century – The umlauted form früe prevails, as in Luther.[3]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Not far advanced in time, near the beginning: am frühen Morgen, in früher Kindheit.[14][15]
  2. Earlier than expected or usual, premature: ein früher Winter.[14][15]
  3. (of an artist) In the first period of his or her work: der frühe Goethe.[14][13]

Adverb

  1. early: sie ist früh aufgestanden.[14][1]
  2. In the morning: morgen früh, Montag früh.[14][1]

Word family

  • Frühe
  • frühestens
  • frühzeitig
  • Frühjahr
  • Frühling
  • Frühstück
  • Frühsommer
  • Frühgeburt
  • Frühmesse
  • verfrüht

Usage notes

Von früh auf means “from early childhood”.[14] In southern Germany and Austria die Früh is used for “the morning”, for example in der Früh.[14][1] The proverb der frühe Vogel fängt den Wurm means “the early bird catches the worm”.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 4, 281
  3. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 4, 284
  4. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 291
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  6. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 605
  7. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 321
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 115
  9. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 608
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b 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
  12. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  13. ^ 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
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  15. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org