Etymologically
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ihn

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Pronunciation

Forms

ihn (accusative singular masculine of er)[1] Middle High German had inen beside the usual in.[2] In the 16th century the word was still written in or jn.[2] Early New High German also had ihne and ihnen beside the lengthened ihn.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German in, inherited from Old High German inan, the accusative of the pronoun er.[3][2] The same form is Old Saxon ina and Gothic 𐌹𐌽𐌰 (ina), while Old Norse, Old English and Old Frisian use forms that begin with /h/.[3][2]

Kluge derives it from the accusative Proto-Indo-European *im, which became /in/ and was then extended by various particles: in Gothic by /-ō/, in German by an ending that was remodelled after the accusative ending of the adjective.[3] The pronominal stem is Proto-Indo-European *ei-, also found in Latin is (“he, that one”) and Lithuanian jìs (“he”).[4][5] The Old High German form inan doubles the accusative suffix, according to the Grimms.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The accusative of er is recorded from the 8th century.[3] In Old High German it is inan and in, the shorter form being used in the Muspilli, in Otfrid as an enclitic, and often in the Tatian; it became the usual form from the 11th century, in Notker.[5]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German in was lengthened to ihn, with the ⟨h⟩ marking the long vowel.[2] The fuller forms ihne and ihnen (for ihn) survived for some time in older texts, and the Grimms note a popular ihnen used emphatically for ihn in an 1866 newspaper.[2] An unstressed form -n is attached to the preceding word in speech, as in hab ichn in Matthias Claudius.[2][1]

Timeline

  • 8th century – The accusative of er is recorded in Old High German.[3]
  • 11th century – The short form in becomes the usual one.[5]
  • 16th century – The word is still written in or jn.[2]
  • 1866 – Emphatic popular ihnen for ihn is recorded in a newspaper from Halle.[2]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. him: the accusative of er, referring to a male person: Ich habe ihn gestern gesehen.[1]
  2. it: the accusative of er, referring to a thing denoted by a masculine noun: Der Schlüssel? Ich habe ihn verloren.[1]
  3. (obsolete) them, used for the dative plural ihnen.[1]

Usage notes

In colloquial speech the word is often reduced to /ən/ or attached to the preceding word.[1][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 2048
  3. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 438
  4. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ 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. 2, 1092