gründen

Forms

gründen (third-person singular present gründet, past tense gründete, past participle gegründet, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German gründen, inherited from Old High German grunten (“to fathom, explore”), a verb formed from the noun grunt (“ground, bottom”), the ancestor of Grund.^[2][3][4][1] The umlaut is regular for a verb of this kind, made with a /j/ suffix.^[4] Forms without umlaut appear now and then in dialects and in rhyme.^[4]

Wiktionary reconstructs a Proto-West Germanic *grundijan and Proto-Germanic *grundijaną.^[1] The Grimms' dictionary, by contrast, finds the Old High German verb only in Notker and Old English gryndan rare and unsteady in meaning, and holds that the English verb ground was formed separately, so that no older West Germanic verb need be assumed; it was later Middle High German that gave the verb wider currency.^[4]

The noun goes back to Proto-Germanic *grunduz (“ground, bottom”), found also in Old Saxon grund, Old English grund, Old Norse grunnr and Old Frisian grund.^[2][3][5] Kluge considers its further origin unexplained: Old Irish grindell (“bottom of a lake”) and Lithuanian pãgrindas (“foundation”) are possible comparisons, but neither fits the Germanic forms well.^[2] Pfeifer and Duden assume an original sense “coarse sand, ground-up earth” and connect it with Proto-Indo-European *gʰrendʰ- (“to grind”), the root of Grind and English grind.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German grunten is recorded about 1000 in Notker, meaning “to fathom, explore, explain, lay a foundation”.^[3][7] In Middle High German gründen meant “to find the bottom, get to the bottom of something”, “to set on a firm foundation” and “to explain thoroughly”; the town chronicles have ûf etw. gegründet sîn “to rest on something”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Early New High German used gründen for reaching the bottom of water and gaining footing, for laying a foundation stone, building and founding a town, for resting a thing on a secure basis and for relying on something.^[10] The sense of fathoming passed to ergründen;^[11][3] Adelung still knew der Teich ist nicht zu gründen “the pond has no bottom one can reach” as an everyday phrase, and craftsmen used gründen for priming a surface with a first coat.^[11][3]

The agent noun Gründer appears in the 17th century, and Gründerjahre and Gründerzeit were coined in the 19th century for the boom years after 1871.^[3] In colloquial use sich gründen now also means “to form, come into being”, of a group.^[12] Czech borrowed gründer “entrepreneur, company founder”, and Slovene gruntati “to brood”.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old High German grunten “to fathom, explain” is used by Notker.^[3][7]
• 13th century – Middle High German gründen is recorded in Biterolf and the Wartburgkrieg.^[9]
• 17th century – Gründer “founder” is recorded.^[3]
• 19th century – Gründerjahre and Gründerzeit name the period after 1871.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To found, establish: to bring a party, company, club or town into being: Die Firma wurde 1952 gegründet. Eine Familie gründen is to marry and have children.^[12][1]
2. (reflexive, colloquial) To form, to be founded: Die Bürgerinitiative hat sich im Frühjahr gegründet.^[12][1]
3. (transitive, with auf) To base something on something: Sie gründete ihre Klage auf ein altes Gutachten.^[12]
4. (intransitive or reflexive, with auf or in) To rest on, be grounded in: Sein Erfolg gründet sich auf jahrelange Arbeit.^[12][1]

Word family

• begründen
• ergründen
• Gründer
• Gründung
• Gründerzeit

Related words

• Grund
• gründlich
• grundieren
• English ground

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 378
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 9, 774
5. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 657
6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1101
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
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 Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
12. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de