handeln

Forms

handeln (third-person singular present handelt, past tense handelte, past participle gehandelt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German handeln, inherited from Old High German hantalōn (“to touch, handle, treat”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *handulōn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *handulōną (“to take in the hand, seize”).^[2][3][1] The same verb is Old Saxon handlon, Old Norse handla, Old English handlian (now English handle) and Old Frisian handelia.^[2][3] Kluge records a past tense form as early as the 8th century.^[2]

It is a derivative of Hand, meaning “to do something with the hand”, like cnēowlian (“to kneel”) from cnēow (“knee”);^[2] Kluge notes that it seems to have had no middle vowel.^[2] The origin of Proto-Germanic *handuz (“hand”) itself is disputed: Kluge considers a link with the verb seen in Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌷𐌹𐌽𐌸𐌰𐌽 (frahinþan, “to capture”), the hand being “the grasper”, but finds it morphologically problematic.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German hantalōn is recorded in glosses of the first quarter of the 9th century and in Notker and Otfrid, meaning “to touch, feel, take in the hand, treat”;^[4][5][6] Otfrid has mih sus ni hantoloti “that he should not treat me so”.^[4][5][6] Middle High German still used it for “to take hold of, touch with the hands” and “to work with the hands”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German the use widened greatly, especially to “to do, carry out, perform”.^[3][2] The old transitive sense “to treat, deal with” is common in Luther (sie werden ihn dienstbar machen und übel handeln), but has since passed to behandeln; the intransitive use with an adverb, unrecht handeln “to act wrongly”, is also found in Luther.^[9] From the 16th century, in connection with Handel “trade”, the verb took on the commercial sense “to trade”, and in the 17th century “to haggle over the price”.^[3][10]

The sense “to describe, treat a subject”, with an impersonal subject “to be about”, has been common since Luther;^[3][9] handeln von for writers and books dates from the 17th century.^[3][9] The impersonal es handelt sich um “it is a matter of” appears around 1800, probably after French il s'agit de.^[9] Max Weber made Handeln “action” a basic term of the social sciences.^[9] Polish borrowed the word as handlować “to trade” (1548).^[11]

Timeline

• 8th century – The past form hantalod is recorded.^[2]
• Early 9th century – Old High German hantalōn appears in glosses.^[4]
• 13th century – The noun Handel is formed from the verb.^[2]
• 14th century – Händler in the sense “one who does something, negotiator”.^[3]
• 16th century – The commercial sense “to trade” develops.^[2][3]
• 1548 – Polish handlować is recorded.^[11]
• 17th century – The sense “to haggle” develops.^[3][6]
• Around 1800 – es handelt sich um appears.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To trade, to deal in goods: mit Gebrauchtwagen handeln.^[12][1]
2. To do business with someone: mit vielen Ländern handeln.^[12]
3. (transitive) To sell, offer for sale, also on the stock exchange; figuratively, to be talked of as a candidate: Sie wird als neue Direktorin gehandelt.^[12][1]
4. To haggle, to bargain over a price.^[12][1]
5. To act, take action; to behave in a particular way, also towards others: richtig handeln, an jemandem gut handeln.^[12][1]
6. (formal) To speak or write about a subject; of a book or film, to be about: Der Roman handelt von einer Reise.^[12][1]
7. (impersonal, reflexive) es handelt sich um: it is a matter of, it concerns.^[12][1]

Word family

• Handel
• Handlung
• Händler
• behandeln
• verhandeln
• misshandeln
• abhandeln
• aushandeln
• unterhandeln
• zuwiderhandeln

Related words

• Hand
• Händel

Usage notes

Er lässt mit sich handeln means that he is willing to come to terms.^[12][9] A separate jargon verb handeln, pronounced like English, is borrowed from English handle and means “to handle, manage”.^[13][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 391
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
5. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
6. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1166
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 353
11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag