heftig

Forms

heftig (strong nominative masculine singular heftiger, comparative heftiger, superlative am heftigsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German heftec (“firm, persistent”), whose origin is disputed.^[2][3]

Pfeifer, Duden and Paul derive it from the adjective Old High German haft (“bound, captive”), the base of the suffix -haft, so that it first meant “holding fast”; the modern sense came under the influence of the unrelated Middle High German adjective heifte (“impetuous, vehement”).^[3][4][5][6] Kluge instead takes it as an extension of that older adjective, with a monophthong and a short vowel, and allows only that the adjective meaning “adhering” may have influenced its sound.^[2] Wiktionary also traces it to Old High German heiftig.^[1]

The adjective of the impetuous sense, heifti, belongs probably to Proto-West Germanic *haifsti (“strife, exertion”), treated under Hast.^[2][1] The same noun is Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍆𐍃𐍄𐍃 (haifsts, “strife”) and Old Norse heifst (“hatred, feud”), and with a simplified consonant group Old English hǣst (“violence”) and Lombardic haistan (“violently”).^[3] Kluge thinks the forms with /st/ and with /ft/ are separate simplifications of /fst/.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Middle High German heftec was still rare and meant “firm, lasting, persistent”, also “under arrest, seized”, and figuratively “serious, important”.^[7][3][8] Köbler's earliest text is Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône, about 1230.^[8] The impetuous adjective heifte appears in the Himmelreich of the second half of the 12th century, in “der heifter wint” (“the violent wind”).^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “firm, holding” lasted in Bavarian: Aventin's chronicle tells of a bishop imprisoned in a heftigen thurn, a strong tower.^[7] In Early New High German it meant “persistent, enduring”, as in Luther's ein heftiger Kriegsmann, and also “considerable, mighty”, with an adverb meaning “very”.^[5][3] By Stieler's time (1691) it referred only to strong physical or mental motion, as in heftig bitten, a storm, a fight, a passion, a pain; from this came “passionate, quick to anger”, which Adelung records.^[5] The noun Heftigkeit dates from the 15th century.^[4]

Dutch borrowed the word as Dutch heftig (“impetuous”) by 1562, and in English it is a direction in music.^[10] The Yiddish form is העפֿטיק (heftik).^[1]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 12th century – The unrelated heifte “impetuous” is recorded.^[8]
• c. 1230 – heftec appears in Diu Crône.^[8]
• 15th century – Heftigkeit is formed.^[4]
• 1562 – Dutch has heftig “impetuous”.^[10]
• 1691 – Stieler uses heftig only of strong motion and feeling.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of great force or intensity: violent, fierce, severe, as in ein heftiges Gewitter, heftige Kopfschmerzen; as an adverb, strongly, very much: Es hat die ganze Nacht heftig gestürmt.^[6][1]
2. Easily roused, hot-tempered, unrestrained: Er wird schnell heftig, wenn man ihm widerspricht.^[6]

Word family

• Heftigkeit

Related words

• Hast
• Haft
• -haft

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 402
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 771
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 1210
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de