informieren

Forms

informieren (third-person singular present informiert, past tense informierte, past participle informiert, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin īnfōrmō (“to shape, form; to instruct”), from in- and fōrmō (“to form, shape”), from fōrma (“form, shape”) (see Form), borrowed in the 14th century.^[2][3][4] German took the Latin verb in its transferred sense “to form by instruction, teach”, and the derivatives used in German follow only this sense.^[3][4] Wiktionary instead derives it from French informer.^[1] The same word is Dutch informeren and English inform, and French has it too.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Late Middle High German informieren meant to instruct or acquaint someone with something: it occurs in a Middle High German Summa theologiae (after 1323) and in Tauler's sermons.^[5][3] Paul gives 1418 for the senses “to shape, form, teach”.^[6] Early New High German also used it for shaping or designing something.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to give someone news, to notify” is the modern main sense, and Heyse's dictionary of 1853 records the reflexive sich informieren “to find out, inquire”.^[6] The noun Information, recorded from 1467 as informaci, meant instruction for a long time and, with the growth of the press, came to mean news and data; the agent noun Informator (1571) meant a private tutor until the 19th century.^[6][3] The adjective informativ dates from the 19th century, and Informatik was coined by Karl Steinbuch in 1957.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 14th century – informieren is borrowed from Latin.^[2][3]
• 1418 – Recorded in the senses “to shape, teach”.^[6]
• 1467 – First record of the noun Information (informaci).^[6]
• 1571 – First record of Informator, a private tutor.^[6]
• 1853 – Heyse records sich informieren “to inquire”.^[6]
• 1957 – Karl Steinbuch coins Informatik.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To inform, tell someone about something, give someone news or details: Der Arzt informierte die Familie über die Operation.^[8][1]
2. (reflexive) To find out about something, look into it, read up on it: Vor der Reise hat er sich im Internet über das Wetter informiert.^[8][1]

Word family

• Information
• Informator
• informativ
• Informatik

Related words

• Informant
• Form

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 444
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 405
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
8. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag