hoffen

Forms

hoffen (third-person singular present hofft, past tense hoffte, past participle gehofft, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German hoffen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hopōn, recorded from the 12th century.^[2][1] The verb belonged at first to the northern West Germanic dialects: Middle Low German hopen, Middle Dutch hopen, Old English hopian, recorded in the 9th century, and Old Frisian hopia.^[2][3][4] The older Upper German dialects lacked it and used Old High German thingen, later Middle High German gedingen, instead.^[5][6] Pfeifer and Wiktionary consider that it may have reached the continent with the Anglo-Saxon mission, or that the High German form was taken over from Old Dutch hopon;^[3][1] Kluge thinks its sense was shaped by Latin spērō (“to hope”).^[2]

Its origin is disputed.^[3] Kluge points to the sense “to fear” in Old Low German glosses and Upper German dialects and to the hunters' verhoffen, used of game that stops to look about, and compares Ancient Greek κύπτω (kúptō, “I stoop, bend forward”), from Proto-Indo-European *keu- (“to bend”): leaning forward to see further would have led to “looking into the future”.^[2] He rejects a link with a Hittite verb meaning “to plot”.^[2] The Grimms and Duden connect it with hüpfen, as if “to jump up with expectation”,^[5][7] but Pfeifer finds this doubtful and calls the origin unexplained.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German hoffen is recorded first in Middle German texts, among them Lamprecht's Alexander (1150–1170), meaning “to hope, trust”.^[8][6] It became general in the 13th century, and Konrad von Würzburg uses it at the end of that century.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

Until the 18th century the thing hoped for could stand in the genitive, as in Luther's wie kann man deß hoffen, das man siehet (“how can one hope for what one sees”); hoffen auf has become the usual construction.^[6] Literary German until the 18th century also used an accusative object, as Klopstock and Goethe do.^[6] Adelung notes ich will doch nicht hoffen, dass … as a mild way of forbidding something.^[9][6]

The old physical sense survives in hunting: game verhofft when it stops and looks round.^[9][3] The noun Hoffnung is Middle High German hoffenunge;^[3][6] guter Hoffnung sein came to mean “to be pregnant”.^[3][6] The adverb hoffentlich goes back to hoffenlich, formed from the infinitive, with a glide ⟨t⟩ since the 17th century.^[3][6] The verb spread north into Swedish hoppas and Danish håbe.^[5]

Timeline

• 9th century – Old English hopian is recorded.^[3]
• 1150–1170 – Middle High German hoffen in Lamprecht's Alexander.^[8]
• 13th century – The verb becomes general in High German, displacing gedingen.^[6][5]
• 17th century – hoffentlich with ⟨t⟩.^[3]
• 18th century – The genitive object goes out of use.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To hope, to wish for something and count on it: Ich hoffe, dass der Zug pünktlich ist.^[10][1]
2. With auf: to put one's hope or trust in someone or something: auf besseres Wetter hoffen.^[10][1]
3. To be hopeful, to have confidence in the future.^[10][11]

Word family

• Hoffnung
• hoffentlich
• unverhofft
• verhoffen
• erhoffen

Related words

• hüpfen
• English hope

Usage notes

The proverb Hoffen und Harren macht manchen zum Narren (“hoping and waiting makes many a fool”) warns against idle expectation.^[10] Ich will nicht hoffen, dass … is often said in a slightly threatening tone.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 421
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 1668
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 374
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 2, 1238
10. ^ a b c d e 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