Etymologically
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heißen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈhaɪ̯sən/, [ˈhaɪ̯.sn̩], /ˈhaɪ̯sɛn/[1]
  • Austria, Southern-Germany, Switzerland: [-sn̩][1]

Forms

heißen (class 7 strong, third-person singular present heißt, past tense hieß, past participle geheißen, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German heizen, inherited from Old High German heizan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *haitan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *haitaną (“to call, name”), a strong verb that once had a reduplicated past tense.[2][3][1] The same verb is Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (haitan), Old Norse heita, Old English hātan, Old Frisian hēta and Old Saxon hētan, and today Dutch heten and Swedish heta.[2][3][4]

Kluge, Pfeifer and the Duden take it as a Germanic extension with /d/ of the root Proto-Indo-European *keiə- (“to set in motion”), found in Latin cieō (“I set in motion, summon”), Ancient Greek κινέω (kinéō, “I set in motion”) and, with another extension, in Sanskrit च्यवते (cyávate, “moves”).[2][3][5] The meaning would then have developed from “to drive on, urge” to “to command, call”.[5] Kroonen calls it a strong verb without certain cognates outside Germanic except perhaps in Iranian, and reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ḱeyd- (“to call”).[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German heizan is recorded from the 8th century, in the Abrogans and other glosses and in the Hildebrandslied, and then in the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[6][7][8] It meant “to name, call” and “to command, bid”, and in the passive “to be called”.[6][8]

Semantic evolution

The Germanic verb meant “to call someone, summon, command”, also “to promise”, and with a double accusative “to call someone by a name”.[2][3] Paul takes “to call by name” as the original meaning, as still in Gothic.[9] The modern main sense “to be called” arose in the passive and was taken over by the active voice already in Old High German.[9][5] The sense “to promise” went to verheißen.[9]

The senses “to call” and “to command” are now rare and formal, except in fixed uses such as jemanden willkommen heißen and gutheißen.[5][10][9] The impersonal es heißt “it is said” and das heißt “that is” are common.[10]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German heizan appears in the Abrogans and the Hildebrandslied.[6][8]
  • 8th century – The noun giheiz “promise” is recorded.[3]
  • 15th century – verheißen “to promise” and Verheißung are recorded.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To be called, have a name: Wie heißt deine Schwester?[10][1]
  2. (dated) To call someone something: Er hieß ihn einen Feigling.[10][1]
  3. (formal) To bid, tell someone to do something: Sie hieß ihn warten.[10][1]
  4. To mean, signify: Was heißt „Haus“ auf Englisch?[10][1]
  5. To run, read (of a wording).[10]
  6. (impersonal) es heißt: it is said; it is written.[10][1]
  7. (impersonal, formal) es heißt: it is necessary to.[10]

Word family

  • Geheiß
  • gutheißen
  • verheißen
  • Verheißung
  • heischen
  • Schultheiß
  • zitieren

Usage notes

A separate heißen “to hoist (a flag or sail)” is a 19th-century form of hissen influenced by Dutch hijsen.[11]

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 Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 407
  3. ^ a b c d e f 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 Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 916
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b c Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 146
  9. ^ 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
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org