Etymologically
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greifen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɡʁaɪ̯fən/, [ˈɡʁaɪ̯fən], [ˈɡʁaɪ̯fn̩][1]

Forms

greifen (class 1 strong, third-person singular present greift, past tense griff, past participle gegriffen, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German grîfen, inherited from Old High German grīfan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *grīpan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *grīpaną (“to grab, grasp”), a strong verb.[1][2] The same verb is Gothic 𐌲𐍂𐌴𐌹𐍀𐌰𐌽 (greipan), Old Norse grípa, Old English grīpan, Old Frisian grīpa and Old Saxon grīpan, continued in Dutch grijpen, English gripe and Swedish gripa.[2][3]

Outside Germanic it can be compared only with Baltic, Lithuanian griẽbti (“to seize, snatch”) and Latvian gribēt (“to want”), which point to Proto-Indo-European *gʰreyb-.[2][3][1] Kluge sets beside it a root with a different vowel, *gʰrebʰ-, in Sanskrit गृभ्णाति (gṛbhṇā́ti, “seizes”), Old Church Slavonic грабити (grabiti, “to snatch”) and grė́bti (“to rake”), but calls the connection unclear, and Pfeifer leaves further relations open.[2][3]

Beside the strong verb, Old High German had a weak iterative greifōn (“to touch, feel”), like Old English grāpian.[3] The Grimms' dictionary holds that the strong verb meant “to seize” and the weak one “to grope, feel”, a difference Old English still kept; in German the meanings mixed already in Old High German, and the forms fell together in New High German.[4][3] The French verb gripper (“to grab”) and the noun grippe (see Grippe) were borrowed from Germanic.[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German grīfan is recorded from about 800;[3][6] Köbler gives its senses as to grip, to grope, to perceive by touch, to touch and to stroke.[3][6] The weak greifōn of the same time was used for Latin palpare, to feel one's way, as in Otfrid, where the blind man went weges greifōnti, groping along the road.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German grīfen covered feeling and touching as well as seizing and taking possession.[7][8] The compounds took their own paths: angreifen, at first “to touch”, has meant “to attack” since the 16th century, and begreifen turned from “to touch” to “to understand” after the Middle High German period.[3][9]

Paul lists the many prepositional uses: zu etwas greifen “to resort to something” (zu den Waffen greifen), nach etwas greifen “to reach for something”, and um sich greifen, which usually means “to spread”, of a disease or an evil.[10] Jemandem unter die Arme greifen is to help someone, and Goethe's Greift nur hinein ins volle Menschenleben! (Faust I, 167) is often quoted.[10] Since Goethe greifen has also meant “to take hold, take effect”, of arguments and measures.[10] Greifer dates from the 17th century, and greifbar from the 18th.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 800 – Old High German grīfan and greifōn are recorded.[3]
  • 9th century – Otfrid uses greifōn “to grope”.[4]
  • 16th century – angreifen takes on the sense “to attack”.[3]
  • 17th century – First record of Greifer.[3]
  • 18th century – First record of greifbar.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To grab, grasp, take hold of: Er griff seine Jacke und lief hinaus.[11][1]
  2. To catch, to seize, to capture: Die Polizei griff den Einbrecher noch in der Nacht.[11][1]
  3. (elevated, zu) To take up for a purpose, to resort to: zum Telefon greifen.[11]
  4. (intransitive, nach, an, in) To reach for, to reach into: Sie griff nach dem Glas.[11][1]
  5. (music) To play (a chord, a note) with the fingers: einen Akkord greifen.[11][1]
  6. (intransitive, especially technology) To grip, to engage, to have enough traction; figuratively, to take effect: Die neuen Regeln greifen noch nicht.[11][1]
  7. (only in compound tenses) To estimate: Die Zahl ist zu hoch gegriffen.[11][10]

Word family

  • abgreifen
  • angreifen
  • ausgreifen
  • begreifen
  • ergreifen
  • greifbar
  • Griff
  • übergreifen
  • vergreifen
  • Greifer
  • aufgreifen
  • durchgreifen
  • eingreifen
  • Greifvogel
  • Grips
  • Grippe
  • English gripe

Usage notes

Zum Greifen nah means “within reach”, of a place or a goal.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. 373
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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, 14
  5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities
  9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  10. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag