fragen

Forms

fragen (weak or mixed, third-person singular present fragt or (dialectal or colloquial) frägt, past tense fragte or (dialectal or colloquial) frug, past participle gefragt, past subjunctive fragte or (dialectal or colloquial) früge, auxiliary haben)^[1] From the 18th century strong forms such as the past frug spread from Low German.^[2] Middle High German and the dialects into the 20th century also had a by-form vregen.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vrāgen, inherited from Old High German frāgēn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *frāgēn.^[1][3] The same verb is Old Saxon frāgon, Old Frisian frēgia and Dutch vragen.^[3][1][2] Though better attested than the noun, the verb is derived from Frage, Old High German frāga;^[3][4][5] the noun, found only in German and Dutch, is a lengthened-grade abstract of a Germanic strong verb that has died out in German.^[3][4][6]

That verb is Proto-Germanic *fregnaną, seen in Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌽𐌰𐌽 (fraihnan), Old Norse fregna and Old English frignan, and in Old High German only in gafregin (“I learned”) in the Wessobrunn Prayer.^[3][1][7] It goes back to Proto-Indo-European *preḱ- (“to ask”), also found in Latin precor (“I pray, entreat”), Lithuanian pir̃šti (“to ask for a girl's hand for someone”) and Old Church Slavonic просити (prositi, “to ask for”).^[3][4] The same root, with another suffix, gives forschen.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German frāgēn is recorded from the 8th century;^[3][4] the Old High German Isidor (end of the 8th century) has dher unchilaubo fraghet “the unbeliever asks”.^[2] It meant to ask, question, examine and investigate, and with nāh or bī “to ask after”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German vrāgen also meant “to ask for, request” and “to interrogate”;^[10] the judicial use survived in peinlich fragen, to question under torture, which Adelung still records.^[11] Luther's wer viel fragt, wird ungenem (1527) “whoever asks much becomes unwelcome” is quoted in the revised Grimm dictionary.^[2]

Fragezeichen is a 16th-century translation of Latin signum interrogationis.^[4][6] fraglich “questionable” appears at the beginning of the 17th century but became usual only in the 19th,^[4] and fragwürdig was formed around 1800 after English questionable, first meaning “worth asking about”, later “doubtful, suspect”.^[6]

Timeline

• 8th century – First record of frāgēn.^[3]
• End of the 8th century – The Old High German Isidor uses the verb.^[2]
• 1527 – Luther: wer viel fragt, wird ungenem.^[2]
• 16th century – Fragezeichen is formed.^[4]
• Early 17th century – fraglich appears.^[4]
• 18th century – Strong forms such as frug spread from Low German.^[2]
• c. 1800 – fragwürdig is formed after English questionable.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To ask: to address someone expecting an answer or information: Sie fragte ihn nach dem Weg.^[12][1]
2. To ask questions: Er fragt immer sehr genau.^[12]
3. (fragen nach) To inquire about someone or something: Hat jemand nach mir gefragt?^[12][1]
4. (fragen nach, usually negated) To care about: Niemand fragte nach den alten Nachbarn.^[12]
5. (sich fragen) To wonder: Ich frage mich, ob das stimmt.^[12][1]

Word family

• fragwürdig
• fraglich
• abfragen
• anfragen
• ausfragen
• befragen
• durchfragen
• erfragen
• herumfragen
• hinterfragen
• nachfragen
• Umfrage

Related words

• Frage
• forschen

Usage notes

Beside the weak forms (fragte, gefragt), colloquial and regional German has strong ones: frägt, frug, früge.^[1][12] Duden's large dictionary quotes frug from Büchner and Storm.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 862
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 313
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 4, 49
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 112
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
12. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag