Etymologically
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helfen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈhɛlfn̩/[1]

Forms

helfen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present hilft, past tense half, past participle geholfen, past subjunctive hülfe, auxiliary haben)[1] Middle High German had the preterite plural hulfen beside the singular half, and it is still frequent after the 16th century, as in Luther's hulfen and holfen.[2] The plural halfen, modelled on the singular, was general by the 17th century.[2] Beside the old subjunctive hülfe, hälfe has been used since the 18th century.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German helfen, inherited from Old High German helfan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *helpan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *helpaną (“to help”).[4][1][5] The same strong verb is Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌻𐍀𐌰𐌽 (hilpan), Old Norse hjalpa, Old English helpan, Old Frisian helpa and Old Saxon helpan, and in the modern languages Dutch helpen, English help, Swedish hjälpa and Icelandic hjálpa.[4][6][5] In Old High German the shifted /pf/ was simplified to /f/ after /l/ at an early date, and the present singular shows /e/ raised to /i/ before a following /i/ or /u/.[7]

The verb has no exact match outside Germanic.[4][5] The usual comparison is Lithuanian šel̃pti (“to support, help”), from which Pfeifer reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ḱelb- (in Baltic *ḱelp-) “to help, support”;[6][1] the Duden dictionary calls the Baltic connection probable and further links uncertain.[8] Kluge also mentions the variant gélbėti (“to help”), and thinks a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to conceal, shelter”) (as in hehlen) possible.[4] Pfeifer leaves open whether that root or *ḱel- (“to incline”) is meant.[6] Kroonen notes that deriving the Germanic verb from such a form requires an iterative verb that is not attested, and wonders whether the Lithuanian verb was borrowed from a lost Slavic word that itself came from Germanic.[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German helfan is first found in glosses of about 765 and is common in the early texts: the Isidor translation, Tatian, Otfrid, the Muspilli, the Ludwigslied and Notker.[9][10] It meant “to help, stand by, support, be of use” with a dative or accusative, and with a genitive “to help someone to something”; with a reflexive genitive it meant “to hurry, strive”.[10][11]

Semantic evolution

Older German also put the person helped in the accusative, as in Lessing's was hilft es ihn and Goethe's childish ich helfe dich; today the dative is the rule.[3][12] The oath so wahr mir Gott helfe reflects the medieval idea of the judgement of God, and Old High German already has hulfe mir got.[3] Colloquial ich werde dir helfen! is a threat: “don't you dare do that again”.[3][12]

Among the derivatives, Luther used Helfer to translate “deacon”, which survives in Switzerland and Swabia as the title of an assistant preacher.[3] Helfershelfer first meant a comrade in a feud (early 15th century) and since the 17th century has increasingly meant an accomplice.[6][8] Czech borrowed the verb as Czech helfnout, and the Polish dialect of Cieszyn as helfnóć.[13]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German helfan appears in glosses.[9]
  • 1060–1065 – Middle High German helfen in Williram's paraphrase of the Song of Songs.[14]
  • Early 15th century – Helfershelfer “comrade in a feud”.[6]
  • 16th century – Luther still uses the preterite plural hulfen.[2]
  • 17th century – The plural halfen has become general.[2]
  • 18th century – The subjunctive hälfe appears beside hülfe.[3]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To help, assist someone (with the dative) so that they reach a goal more easily: Sie half ihrem Nachbarn beim Umzug.[12][1]
  2. To be useful, to further an aim: Ein guter Plan hilft, Zeit zu sparen.[12]
  3. Of a remedy, to be effective: Der Tee hilft gegen Halsschmerzen.[12][15]

Word family

  • Hilfe
  • Helfer
  • Helfershelfer
  • abhelfen
  • aushelfen
  • behelfen
  • Behelf
  • verhelfen
  • unbeholfen

Usage notes

Sich zu helfen wissen is to know how to get out of a difficulty, and jemandem ist nicht zu helfen means that all help or advice is wasted on someone.[12] Ich kann mir nicht helfen, “I can't help it”, introduces an opinion one cannot shake off.[12][3]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 10, 949
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 409
  5. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 931
  8. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 378
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 147
  11. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  13. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  15. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org