Etymologically
Log in

gehen

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 18:49. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˈɡeːən/, [ˈɡeː.ən], /ɡeːn/[1]

Forms

gehen (class 7 strong, third-person singular present geht, past tense ging, past participle gegangen, auxiliary sein)[1] The past tense ging was long also spelled gieng, from Middle High German gienc.[2]

Etymology

Its paradigm joins forms of unrelated verbs.[3][4] The infinitive and present are inherited from Middle High German gān and gēn, inherited from Old High German gān and gēn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *gān, inherited from Proto-Germanic *gāną (“to go”).[5][1] This verb is also Old English gān and Old Frisian gān, and survives in Dutch gaan, English go and Swedish gå.[5][3] In Old High German it had only an infinitive and athematic present forms.[3]

The past tense ⟨ging⟩ and the participle ⟨gegangen⟩ come from Old High German gangan, Proto-Germanic *ganganą (“to go, walk”), a reduplicating strong verb that is also Gothic 𐌲𐌰𐌲𐌲𐌰𐌽 (gaggan), Old Norse ganga and gangan; it is related to Gang.[3][1][6] Outside Germanic it is compared with Lithuanian žeñgti (“to step”), from the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰengʰ- (“to stride”).[3][1]

For the present stem Kluge compares Ancient Greek κιχάνω (kikhánō, “to reach, overtake”), a Homeric verb;[5][3] Pfeifer sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *g̑hē- (“to be empty, lack, leave”), perhaps the same as that of gähnen, since “go away” may have developed from “stand gaping apart”.[5][3] Wiktionary and Kroonen give it as Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰeh₁- (“to leave”).[1][7] The origin of the Old High German /ē/ forms, which Kluge traces to Germanic /ai/, is disputed, but they are surely a secondary development.[5][4] Kroonen considers that the stem in /ai/ may contain the prefix *ga- and the old root Proto-Indo-European *h₁ey- (“to go”).[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German gān and gēn are recorded from the 8th century, gangan from the last quarter of that century, first in the Benedictine Rule and glosses.[5][3][6][8] They meant “to go, step, walk, come, go away, set out, extend, relate to”.[6][9]

Semantic evolution

The present forms were originally of one syllable (Middle High German gēn, gēst, gēt), like those of stehen and tun; the two-syllable infinitive comes from a written language of the Bavarian and East Franconian south.[2][6] Forms with /a/ (gān, gāt) at first predominated and still occur in the 16th century.[2] The forms of gangan were driven out of the present, Middle High German still having the imperative ganc, but held the past tense and participle.[2] The h was put in the spelling by analogy with sehen.[1] In Early New High German the perfect was formed with haben in the south and with sein in Central German.[10]

The first sense was to move on foot, upright and step by step; the verb then became a general word for movement of any kind, contrasted with fahren and laufen.[2] It also came to mean “to be possible”, “to work, function” and “to extend, lead”, and is used in asking after someone's health, wie geht es? “how are you?”.[4]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German gān and gēn are first recorded.[5][3]
  • Late 8th century – Old High German gangan appears in the Benedictine Rule and glosses.[6][8]
  • 11th century – The short preterite gie, formed after the present gān, appears in early Middle High German.[6]
  • 16th century – The last present forms with /a/ (gan, gat) are found.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To walk, to move upright on one's feet, step by step.[11][1]
  2. To cover a distance on foot: einen Umweg gehen “to make a detour”.[11]
  3. To go somewhere, often for a purpose: schwimmen gehen “to go swimming”, zum Arzt gehen “to see the doctor”.[11][1]
  4. To leave; of a train or plane, to depart.[1][12]
  5. (colloquial) To work, to function, of a machine or method.[1][12]
  6. (impersonal) To be possible, to be acceptable.[1][12]
  7. (impersonal, with dative) To be doing, to fare: wie geht es? “how are things?”.[1][4]
  8. To extend, to lead, of a road or path.[12][4]
  9. Of dough: to rise.[1][12]

Word family

  • abgehen
  • angehen
  • aufgehen
  • ausgehen
  • begehen
  • eingehen
  • entgehen
  • ergehen
  • hintergehen
  • übergehen
  • umgehen
  • untergehen
  • vergehen
  • vorgehen
  • Gang
  • gähnen
  • English go

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 308
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 340
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
  7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 121
  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 Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org