Etymologically
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inzwischen

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Pronunciation

  • /ɪnˈt͡svɪʃn̩/[1]

Forms

inzwischen[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German enzwischen, from the Old High German phrase in zwiskēn (“in the middle of two”), formed from German in + zwischen.[1][2][3] The Old High German phrase was built on the distributive numeral zwisk (“twofold”) and was rarer than untar zwiskēn (“among two”).[3] Kluge dates the adverb only to the 13th century, from the Middle High German phrase dā enzwischen (“between this”).[4] An older variant entzwischen was used into New High German and then gave way again to the present form.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The phrase is first a preposition with a local sense: Williram's in mînemo herzen, daʒ inzwischen den brusten liget “in my heart, that lies between the breasts”.[3] An adverbial use is found in the Annolied (1077–1081).[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The local sense has almost disappeared, replaced by dazwischen and zwischen, and since Early New High German the word has been a temporal adverb, “meanwhile” and, looking back, “since then”.[6][3] Early New High German also used it for a contrast, “however”.[7] Until the 19th century inzwischen (also inzwischen dass) could introduce a clause like a conjunction, as in Goethe and Kleist.[6] Adelung judged it a word of everyday speech that careful writers avoided in favour of indessen.[8]

Timeline

  • 1077–1081 – The Annolied has an adverbial inzuschin.[3][5]
  • 13th century – Kluge's date for the adverb.[4]
  • 1793 – Adelung calls it colloquial.[8]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. meanwhile, by now: in the time that has passed, something has happened or a state has been reached: inzwischen ist die Brücke fertig.[2][1]
  2. In the meantime, at the same time as something else: ich koche, du kannst inzwischen den Tisch decken.[2][1]
  3. Until a future point: in the time before something happens.[2][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 10, 2152
  4. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 450
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  6. ^ a b 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 Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 2, 1391