Etymologically
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gesamt

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Pronunciation

  • [ɡəˈzamt][1]

Forms

gesamt (strong nominative masculine singular gesamter, not comparable)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German gesament, gesamt, inherited from Old High German gisamanōt, the past participle of samanōn (“to gather, assemble”), used as an adjective; its first sense was therefore “gathered”.[2][3][4] The Middle High German verb samenen died out in New High German, where sammeln took its place.[4][3]

The verb continues Proto-West Germanic *samnōn, Proto-Germanic *samnōną (“to bring together”), formed from *samanai (“together”) and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates the adjective to the 10th century;[2][5] Wiktionary DE gives the 8th.[2][5] Middle High German gesament meant “assembled, united, joint, unanimous”, for instance in Jansen Enikel's chronicle and around 1270 in Gottfried Hagen's Cologne chronicle.[6][3]

Semantic evolution

The participle was already independent as an adjective in Middle High German.[3] In Early New High German, mostly spelled gesambt, it meant “joint” and “all together”, and was even used as a preposition “together with”.[7] An old legal phrase, mit gesamter Hand, means “jointly”, of several persons acting together.[8]

The adverb insgesamt and many compounds such as Gesamtbetrag and Gesamteindruck belong to it.[8] The noun Gesamtheit is from the 18th century;[3][8][4] Campe records it in 1797 for a body of persons, and Görres speaks of a Gesamtsprache in 1821.[3][8][4]

Timeline

  • 10th century – Old High German gisamanōt.[2]
  • About 1270 – Middle High German gesament in Hagen's chronicle.[6]
  • 1797 – Gesamtheit for a body of persons.[8]
  • 1821 – Görres uses Gesamtsprache.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Whole, entire, all the parts taken together: die gesamte Belegschaft, ihr gesamtes Erspartes.[9][1] Im Gesamten (dated) means “altogether”.[9]

Word family

  • Gesamtheit
  • insgesamt
  • Gesamt

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. 352
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 333
  5. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag