her

Forms

her (adverb; also a stressed separable prefix of verbs, as in herkommen)^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German her, inherited from Old High German hera, formed with a suffix of direction from the pronominal stem Proto-Germanic *hi- (“this”), which points to the place where the speaker stands.^[4][5][6] Old High German wara (“whither”) and dara (“thither”) are formed in the same way, and the latter stands to dār (“there”) as this adverb stands to hier.^[4][1][7] The same stem is in hin, heute and heuer and in English he, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱ(e)i- (“this”), which also gave Latin cis (“on this side”) and the Latin particle -ce.^[5][8] Related forms are Dutch her and perhaps Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐍂𐌹 (hiri), whereas Gothic 𐌷𐌴𐍂 (hēr), Old Saxon hēr, Old English hēr and Old Norse hér mean “here” and belong with that word.^[1][9] Alemannic has Alemannic German har, already in Notker.^[7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German hera is first recorded around 800, meaning “hither, to this place”, and also “down to earth, into this world”.^[5][7] Schützeichel finds it in the Merseburg Charms, the Lorsch Bee Blessing, Tatian, Otfrid, Williram and Notker;^[10][7] Notker also uses fona hera in a temporal sense, “until now”.^[10][7]

Semantic evolution

her marks movement towards the speaker, the opposite of hin; carried over to time it covers a span reaching from the past into the speaker's present, as in es ist ein Jahr her, bisher and seither.^[5][8] Joined to adverbs of rest it makes adverbs of direction such as daher, dorther and woher, and with a named starting point (von Westen her) the starting point comes to the fore, so that the movement need not be towards the speaker.^[4][5] Its compounds are partly old (Old High German hera ūʒ “out here”, hera nāh “afterwards”), partly later, such as herein (15th century) and herbei (16th century).^[5] Already in early New High German the h was lost in unstressed use (erab, eraus), and then the e too (raus, rein); in northern colloquial German these forms also serve for movement away from the speaker, as already in Lessing.^[3][9] In verbs such as herstellen and herrichten it marks a purpose rather than a direction.^[8][3]

Timeline

• c. 800 – Old High German hera is first recorded.^[5][7]
• 15th century – herein and herabe appear.^[5]
• 16th century – herbei appears.^[5]
• 18th century – Lessing uses herüber for movement away from the speaker.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. hither, here, towards the speaker, often as a command: Komm sofort her! Her mit dem Schlüssel! Wo ist sie her?, where does she come from? Colloquial hinter jemandem her sein, to be after someone.^[2][1]
2. ago, back from now: Das ist schon drei Jahre her.^[2][1]
3. With von: from a place, a time or a point of view: Vom Fluss her wehte ein kalter Wind. Von der Form her gefällt mir die Vase.^[2]

Word family

• herab
• heran
• herauf
• heraus
• herbei
• herein
• herüber
• herum
• herunter
• hervor
• hierher
• woher
• daher
• bisher
• seither
• herstellen

Related words

• her-
• hier
• hin
• heute
• heuer

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 410
5. ^ 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
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 4, 961
8. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 380
9. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 999
10. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 149