halb

Forms

halb (strong nominative masculine singular halber, not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German halp, inherited from Old High German halb, inherited from Proto-Germanic *halbaz (“half”).^[2][1][3] The same word is Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌻𐌱𐍃 (halbs), Old Norse hálfr, Old English healf, Old Frisian half and Old Saxon half, continued in Dutch half, English half, Swedish halv and Icelandic hálfur.^[2][3][4] A feminine noun beside it, Old High German halba, Middle High German halbe, meant “side” throughout Germanic; its case forms became the adverbs and prepositions in -halb, -halben and halber, as in deshalb and innerhalb.^[2][4][5]

Its further origin is unclear.^[2][3] Kluge mentions Lithuanian šalìs (“side, region”) and Latvian sala (“half of a slaughtered pig”), and perhaps Sanskrit कल्पयति (kalpáyati, “assigns, distributes”).^[2] Pfeifer and Duden assume an original sense “cut, split” and derive it from an extension in -p- of Proto-Indo-European *(s)kel- (“to cut”), with Latin scalpō (“to scratch, carve”), Latin sculpō (“to carve”) and Ancient Greek σκόλοψ (skólops, “stake”);^[4][5] Orel also thinks a link with the Sanskrit verb probable,^[6] but Kroonen finds the comparisons with Sanskrit and Lithuanian unconvincing in meaning.^[3]

The way of counting in anderthalb “one and a half”, literally “the second (only) half”, is already Germanic, with parallels in Old English and Old Norse.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German halb is first recorded in glosses of about 765, then in Notker, Otfrid and the Physiologus, meaning “half”;^[7][8] halbo teil meant “a half”.^[7][8] Old High German anderhalb “one and a half” is recorded in the 8th century and thrittohalb “two and a half” in the 9th.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides its exact sense, the adjective came to mean “incomplete, imperfect”, and as an adverb, often doubled (halb …, halb …, halb und halb), “partly, almost”.^[4][9] Opposed to ganz and voll it gave phrases like die halbe Wahrheit; in telling the time halb elf means half past ten, unlike English and French usage.^[10] The Grimms note the frozen form halber, used in speech even where no masculine noun follows.^[11] As a measure of drink it is used as a noun: northern ein Halber, Bavarian eine Halbe.^[10]

The verb halbieren arose in the 13th century as a variant of Middle High German halben with a French-looking ending, used at first of clothes made of two colours after French fashion, and became a term of mathematics in the 15th century.^[4][5] Several compounds are loan translations: Halbgott (Old High German halbgot) from Latin semideus, Halbinsel (17th century) from paeninsula, Halbwelt (19th century) from French demi-monde, halbmast (about 1870) from English half-mast and Halbzeit (about 1900) from English half-time.^[5][10]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German halb appears in glosses.^[7]
• 8th century – anderhalb “one and a half” is recorded.^[4]
• 10th century – halb is used as a preposition “because of”.^[4]
• 13th century – The verb halbieren appears.^[4]
• 17th century – Halbinsel is coined after Latin paeninsula.^[5][10]
• 1855 – Alexandre Dumas's play Le Demi-Monde gives German Halbwelt.^[12]
• c. 1870 – halbmast appears.^[10]
• c. 1900 – Halbzeit and Halbstarker appear.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. half, making up one of two equal parts: eine halbe Stunde, ein halbes Brot; in telling the time, half an hour before the hour named: halb drei “half past two”.^[13][1]
2. incomplete, partial, done only in part: Er hat nur halbe Arbeit geleistet.^[13]
3. Reduced, weakened, at less than full strength: mit halber Kraft.^[13]

Adverb

1. Half, partly: Die Tür stand halb offen. halb …, halb …: partly …, partly ….^[13][1]
2. Almost, nearly: Ich bin vor Schreck halb gestorben.^[13]

Word family

• Hälfte
• halbieren
• anderthalb
• halber
• Halbinsel
• Halbgott
• halbmast
• Halbzeit
• innerhalb
• deshalb

Related words

• Schild
• English half

Usage notes

Halbe-halbe machen (colloquial) is to share gains or losses equally.^[13] Old High German also had a masculine halb “handle, haft”, recorded in glosses from the early 9th century, which survives as Helb.^[7][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 387
3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 138
9. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
10. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 184
12. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
13. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
14. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de