gefallen

Forms

gefallen (class 7 strong, third-person singular present gefällt, past tense gefiel, past participle gefallen, auxiliary haben)^[1] Early New High German writers often wrote the third person singular without umlaut, gefallt, as Bavarian still does.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German gevallen, inherited from Old High German gifallan (“to fall to, fall to one's share”), formed from German ge- + fallen.^[3][4][1] The same formation is Middle Low German gevallen, Middle Dutch gevallen and Old English gefeallan.^[4][2] fallen is Old High German fallan, from Proto-Germanic *fallaną (“to fall”);^[5][1][6] Duden relates it to Lithuanian pùlti (“to fall”).^[5][1][6]

The sense “to please” grew out of “to fall to someone, fall to one's lot”, probably with reference to the fall of dice or lots.^[3][4][7] Middle High German still added adverbs such as wol (“well”) and baz (“better”): “it falls well to me” meant “I have drawn a good lot”.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German gifallan is recorded in glosses from the end of the 8th century and in Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[5][8] It meant “to fall, happen, fall to someone's share”, and also “to be fitting, suit”.^[8][4]

Semantic evolution

In Early New High German the verb still also meant “to fall to, be allotted”.^[9][10] The present meaning seems to come from a neutral use, as in wie gefällt dir das?, which could be answered with “well” or “badly” (formerly wohl or übel).^[9] Older German also used it of a decision, with zu and an infinitive, as in a death notice saying that it pleased God to call someone to him;^[9] Wieland and Goethe used the reflexive sich gefallen “to enjoy being somewhere”.^[9]

The adjective gefällig goes back to Old High German gifellīg “suitable, right” (about 1000), and Gefallen to Middle High German geval.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German gifallan appears in glosses.^[3][5]
• c. 1000 – Notker uses gifallan;^[8][4] gifellīg is recorded.^[8][4]
• Early New High German – The old sense “to fall to” is still current.^[9]
• 1793 – Adelung defines the verb as “to be felt as good, arouse pleasure”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To please, to appeal to someone (with the dative, English usually says to like): Die neue Wohnung gefällt meinen Eltern.^[11][1]
2. (reflexive) sich in etwas gefallen: to show off complacently in a certain role or behaviour.^[11][13]
3. sich etwas gefallen lassen (colloquial): to put up with something unpleasant; also, to accept something gladly.^[11]

Word family

• gefällig
• Gefälligkeit
• Gefallen
• Wohlgefallen

Related words

• fallen
• Fall
• missfallen

Usage notes

The adjective gefallen “fallen, dropped” is the past participle of fallen, not of this verb.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 4, 2102
3. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 339
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag
8. ^ a b c d Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 95
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org