interessant

Forms

interessant (strong nominative masculine singular interessanter, comparative interessanter, superlative am interessantesten)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French intéressant, the present participle of intéresser (“to interest”), borrowed at the beginning of the 18th century.^[2][3][4] The verb belongs with intérêt (“interest”), which goes back to Latin interesse (“to be between, take part; to be of importance”), from inter (“between”) and esse (“to be”).^[5][3][6] German had already borrowed the Latin infinitive as Interesse in the 13th–15th century, at first as a legal term for damages.^[7][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch gives Frederick the Great's note of 1740 as the first record: newspapers, if they are to be interessant, must not be hampered.^[2] The word first belonged to literary criticism, and Sulzer listed it in 1771 as a term of the fine arts.^[2]

Semantic evolution

By the end of the 18th century interessant had passed into general use and soon became a colourless word of polite conversation: in a letter of 1807 Goethe apologises for having to use such common society words of a man.^[2] Lessing in 1767 and Goethe's Werther (1774) already use it of scenes and stories that catch the reader's attention.^[2] The noun's sense “attention, sympathy” itself came from French in the 18th century, which is the sense the adjective was formed on.^[3][8][9] In commercial language it also means “promising profit”.^[4][10]

Timeline

• 1740 – Frederick the Great writes that newspapers must not be hampered if they are to be interessant.^[2]
• 1767 – Lessing uses it in his Hamburgische Dramaturgie.^[2]
• 1771 – Sulzer lists it as a term of the fine arts.^[2]
• 1774 – Goethe's Werther uses it of a story that touches him.^[2]
• End of the 18th century – It becomes a word of everyday speech.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Arousing interest or attention; absorbing: ein interessanter Film;^[4][1] sich interessant machen “to draw attention to oneself”.^[4][1]
2. (commerce) Promising profit or advantage: Das Angebot ist für uns nicht interessant.^[4][10]

Adverb

1. In an interesting way: Er kann sehr interessant erzählen.^[4][1]

Word family

• uninteressant
• interessanterweise

Related words

• Interesse
• interessieren
• Interessent

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
3. ^ a b c d 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 d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 448
8. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 2148
10. ^ a b Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag