geben

Forms

geben (class 5 strong, third-person singular present gibt, past tense gab, past participle gegeben, past subjunctive gäbe, auxiliary haben)^[1] The second and third person singular and the imperative were also spelled giebst, giebt, gieb until 1901;^[2] Bavaria had required gibst, gibt, gib before 1900.^[2] Alemannic writers often spelled the stem with ⟨ä⟩, as Maaler's gäben.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German gëben, inherited from Old High German geban, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *geban, inherited from Proto-Germanic *gebaną.^[4][1] The same strong verb is Gothic 𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (giban), Old Norse gefa, Old English giefan, Old Saxon geƀan and Old Frisian jeva;^[4][5][6] English give was borrowed from Norse.^[4][5][6]

The verb has no direct match outside Germanic.^[4] The usual comparison is with a root Proto-Indo-European *gʰabʰ- (“to seize, take, hold”), found in Latin habeō (“to have, hold”), Old Irish gaibid (“takes, seizes”) and Lithuanian gabénti (“to convey”), but neither the vowel nor the meaning fit.^[4][5][7] Kluge notes that “take” and “give” often share a root, and cites Stempel's view that the root Proto-Indo-European *gʰebʰ- was an undirected counterpart of Proto-Indo-European *dō- (“to give”).^[4] Pfeifer and the Duden dictionary see a Germanic new formation that replaced the old verb for “give” and took its vowel and its sense from its opposite *nemaną (“to take”) (see nehmen); what one has seized can be handed over.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German geban is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses of about 765, and in the Benedictine Rule, Isidor, the Tatian and Otfrid, with a wide range of senses: “hand over, grant, give up, deliver, give back, bestow, pay back”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Paul takes the oldest sense to be handing something to another person, who receives it so that it becomes theirs; from this the verb came to mean a transfer of ownership without handing over, and a handing over without transfer of ownership.^[2] It is used above all for giving under an obligation or contract (wages, credit) and in buying and selling, while free giving is usually expressed by schenken.^[2]

Its many uses produced a large family of prefixed and particle verbs, such as abgeben, angeben, aufgeben, ausgeben and umgeben, the last a loan translation of Latin circumdare.^[5][10] The nouns Gabe and Gift and the adjective gäbe belong to the same verb.^[4][6]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German geban appears in glosses.^[8][9]
• 9th century – Old High German abageban “abandon” is recorded.^[5]
• 16th century – Umgebung is formed, first meaning “putting around”.^[10]
• 1901 – The spellings giebst, giebt, gieb are given up for gibst, gibt, gib.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hand something to someone, or let it pass into their keeping or possession.^[11][1]
2. To give as a gift or donation.^[11][1]
3. To hand something over for a purpose (das Auto in die Werkstatt geben).^[11]
4. (regional) To put something somewhere (Zucker an die Mehlspeise geben).^[11]
5. Impersonal, es gibt: there is, there are; something exists or is on offer.^[1]
6. To communicate or signal (advice, a hint, a sign).^[1]
7. To result in.^[1]
8. (card games) To deal.^[11]
9. Reflexive: to stop or ease off (of pain or difficulties); also to behave or present oneself in a certain way.^[1]

Word family

• abgeben
• angeben
• aufgeben
• ausgeben
• begeben
• beigeben
• eingeben
• ergeben
• hingeben
• nachgeben
• preisgeben
• stattgeben
• übergeben
• umgeben
• untergeben

Related words

• Gabe
• Gift
• gäbe
• English give

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 Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
3. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 4, 1665
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. 337
5. ^ a b c d e f 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 303
7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
8. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 112
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 304
11. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag