Etymologically
Log in

freuen

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 18:01. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈfʁɔʏ̯ən/[1]

Forms

freuen (third-person singular present freut, past tense freute, past participle gefreut, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vröuwen, inherited from Old High German frewen (also frouwen), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *frauwjan (“to gladden”).[2][3][1] It is a factitive verb formed on the adjective froh, Old High German frō, so its first sense was “to make glad”.[2][4][5] The adjective goes back to Proto-Germanic *frawaz.[3][6]

The verb is found only in continental West Germanic: Middle Low German vrouwen and Middle Dutch vrouwen.[3][4] Duden calls it a purely German verb.[5] Köbler compares, with a question mark, the root Proto-Indo-European *preu- (“to jump”).[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German frewen is first found in the Isidor translation at the end of the 8th century, and then in the glosses, Otfrid, Notker and Williram.[6][7] It meant both “to make glad, fill with joy” and, with a reflexive pronoun and the genitive, “to rejoice (in something)”.[7][3] The Isidor has freuui dhih, Siones dohter “rejoice, daughter of Zion”.[8]

Semantic evolution

The reflexive use dominated from the start and became the only one after Old High German, while the sense “to make glad” with a personal subject passed to erfreuen.[8][5] The plain verb is transitive today only with a thing or fact as subject, as in das freut mich.[5][9]

From the 15th and 16th centuries the cause of joy was increasingly expressed with prepositions, über, an, auf and mit.[8] Sich auf etwas freuen, for something still to come, is recorded by Adelung, while the genitive (sich des Lebens freuen) was frequent in Luther's Bible and revived by 18th-century poets, and has been receding in the 20th century.[10][8][9] Usteri's song Freut euch des Lebens keeps that construction.[9]

Timeline

  • End of the 8th century – Old High German frewen appears in the Isidor translation.[6][8]
  • 9th century – frouwen is used by Otfrid.[4][11]
  • 15th–16th centuries – Constructions with über, an, auf and mit spread.[8]
  • 1793 – Adelung records sich auf etwas freuen for a future event.[10]
  • 20th century – The genitive construction declines.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (reflexive) To be glad, feel joy; with über about something present or past: sie freute sich über den Brief.[12][1]
  2. (reflexive) With auf: to look forward to something: wir freuen uns auf die Ferien.[12][1]
  3. (reflexive) With für: to be happy for someone.[12][1]
  4. (reflexive) With an: to take pleasure in something;[12][1] (literary) with the genitive, to enjoy.[12][1]
  5. To please, give joy to someone: es freut mich, dass es dir besser geht.[12][1]

Word family

  • erfreuen

Usage notes

Freut mich is a polite formula on being introduced to someone, and hat mich gefreut on taking leave.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 318
  3. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 552
  4. ^ a b c 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 287
  6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 113
  8. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 1022
  9. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 2, 282
  11. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 115
  12. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag