Etymologically
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gern

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Pronunciation

  • /ɡɛrn/, [ɡɛʁn], [ɡɛɐ̯n][1]

Forms

gern (comparative lieber, superlative am liebsten)[1] The variant gerne is also used.[2][1] Older forms include geren and gären.[3] The comparative gerner and superlative am gernsten were replaced by lieber and am liebsten, but occur here and there until the 18th century.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German gerne, inherited from Old High German gerno (“eagerly, gladly”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *gernō, inherited from Proto-Germanic *gernô (“willingly, eagerly”), the adverb of the adjective *gernaz (“eager, willing”).[5][1][6] That adjective is Old High German gern (“desiring, eager”), Old Saxon gern, Old English georn (“eager”) and Old Norse gjarn, and in Gothic it appears in 𐍆𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿𐌲𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌽𐍃 (faihugairns, “covetous”);[5][7][6][3] New High German has lost it apart from a few traces.[5][7][6][3] The same adverb is Old Saxon gerno, georne, Dutch gaarne, Swedish gärna and Icelandic gjarna.[5][6]

It belongs with begehren and Gier to the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“to like, desire”), also in Sanskrit हर्यति (háryati, “takes pleasure in”), Ancient Greek χαίρω (khaírō, “to rejoice”) and Latin hortor (“to urge, encourage”).[5][6][8] Kluge notes that in the forms without /n/ this root has become mixed with another, the root of Geier, so that the two can no longer always be told apart.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates the word to the 8th century.[5] The adverb gerno is found in glosses from the beginning of the 9th century and in the Muspilli, Otfrid, the Ludwigslied and Notker, meaning “eagerly, gladly, willingly, of one's own accord”;[9][10][7] Notker has the comparative gernōr “rather”.[9][10][7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “eagerly”, was early weakened to “gladly”.[4] With the subjunctive it expressed a strong wish, as in the Nibelungenlied's diu mære ich weste gerne “I would gladly know the tale”.[4] Weaker still, it came to mean “readily” and was used of what someone or something tends to do: Early New High German gern could mean “usually, typically”, and also “easily”.[4][11] In Early New High German, up to the 18th century, it could also mean “at least”, which survives in gut und gern.[4]

Goethe's Von Zeit zu Zeit seh' ich den Alten gern (“From time to time I like to see the old man”, Faust I) shows the sense “with pleasure”.[4] The ironic du kannst mich gern haben, literally “you can like me”, comes from Bavarian of the 19th century.[4] Gernegroß, someone who would like to be great, a show-off, is found in Fischart in 1575 but is older, since it is recorded as a surname in the 14th century.[4][6]

Timeline

  • 8th century – First record of the word.[5]
  • early 9th century – Old High German gerno in glosses.[9]
  • 14th century – The alliterating phrase gut und gern appears.[6]
  • 14th century – Gernegroß is recorded as a surname.[4]
  • 1575 – Fischart uses Gernegroß.[4]
  • 18th century – Last uses of the comparative gerner, am gernsten.[4]
  • 19th century – Bavarian du kannst mich gern haben.[4]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Gladly, with pleasure, willingly; with a verb, to like doing something: Mein Bruder kocht gern.[2][1]
  2. Expressing agreement or permission, readily: Das glaube ich dir gern.[2]
  3. Expressing a wish or polite request: Ich hätte gern zwei Brötchen.[2][1]
  4. (especially colloquial) Easily, often; of what tends to happen: Im Keller bildet sich gern Schimmel.[2][1]

Word family

  • gernhaben
  • Gernegroß
  • ungern
  • begehren
  • Gier

Usage notes

Gern and gerne are used side by side; the comparative is lieber and the superlative am liebsten.[2][4] Gut und gern means “easily, at least”, and du kannst mich gern haben is an ironic way of saying that one wants nothing more to do with someone.[2][4][6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  3. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 5, 3719
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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 g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 351
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ 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. 4, 176
  8. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 126
  11. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de