gefährlich

Forms

gefährlich (strong nominative masculine singular gefährlicher, comparative gefährlicher, superlative am gefährlichsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German geværlich (“treacherous, insidious”), formed from German Gefahr + -lich.^[2][3][4][1] The older adjective was værlich (modern fährlich), while Old High German fārlīhho (“secretly, suddenly”) is only an adverb, beside Old English fǣrlīce (“suddenly”); the strengthened form with the prefix ge- is found once in Hartmann's Iwein, in a reading not certain for the poet, and spreads only from the 14th century.^[5]

Gefahr is Middle High German gevāre (“deceit, fraud”), a strengthened form of vāre, Old High German fāra (“ambush, temptation, persecution”), Old Saxon fār, from Proto-Germanic *fērō (“ambush, danger”).^[2][6][7] The same word is Old Norse fár (“enmity, deceit”) and Old English fǣr, whence English fear; compare Gothic 𐍆𐌴𐍂𐌾𐌰 (fērja, “spy”).^[2][6] It is a lengthened-grade noun of Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to try, risk”), found in Latin perīculum (“danger”), experior (“to try, test”) and Ancient Greek πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt”); the meaning went from “treacherous attempt” through “ambush” to “threatening harm”.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Middle High German geværlich meant “treacherous, insidious”, and the Swabian law book uses geverlig for “deceitful”.^[3][8][5] The simple adjective værlich and the adverb vârlîche were long the more frequent forms; the Vocabularius incipiens teutonicum and a Nuremberg vocabulary of 1482 still lack gefärlich.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The sense “dangerous” followed that of Gefahr, which changed from the plot or ambush laid for someone to the condition of the person threatened, and then to any threat, including the forces of nature.^[4] Luther's Bible still often has the simple fährlich, which was used now and then into the 19th century.^[8][4] Adelung defines gefährlich as “bringing danger”, and records the colloquial intensive gefährlich groß, gefährlich schön “extremely big, extremely beautiful”.^[8] The noun Gefährlichkeit is recorded from 1517.^[4] Today the word is also used of a daring plan or game.^[3][4]

Timeline

• Middle High German – geværlich in Hartmann's Iwein.^[5]
• 14th century – The forms with ge- come into use.^[5]
• 1482 – A Nuremberg vocabulary still lacks gefärlich.^[5]
• 1517 – First record of Gefährlichkeit.^[4]
• 1793 – Adelung records gefährlich and the intensive gefährlich groß.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. dangerous, hazardous; involving or causing danger: eine gefährliche Kreuzung;^[3][1] gefährlich krank, seriously ill.^[3][1]
2. Requiring great caution, likely to do harm: ein gefährlicher Gegner.^[3]
3. Risky, daring: ein gefährliches Spiel.^[3][4]

Word family

• Gefährlichkeit
• ungefährlich
• lebensgefährlich

Related words

• Gefahr
• gefährden
• ungefähr
• Experiment

Usage notes

Das ist nicht so gefährlich is colloquial for “that doesn't matter much”.^[3] Das gefährliche Alter is middle age, as a time of risk to health or, jokingly, of romantic adventures.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 339
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
5. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 4, 2081
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf