Etymologically
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interessant

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Pronunciation

  • /ˌɪn.tə.ʁɛˈsant/, /ˌɪn.tʁəˈsant/[1]

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

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