italienisch

Forms

italienisch (strong nominative masculine singular italienischer, not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from German Italien + -isch, the name of the country with the adjective suffix.^[1][2] The Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch records the adjective with -ian- as well as -ien- in the second syllable, meaning “from Italy”.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Early New High German italianisch (1350–1650) meant “coming from Italy, Italian”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

For a long time the native word for “Italian” was welsch: it meant “Romance” in general, but from the 16th century the sense “Italian” came to the fore, and it began to go out of use only around 1800.^[4][5] Adelung, in 1793, still mentions wälsch for Italian in some southern provinces, writing himself Italiänisch and Italiäner.^[6] Campe, in 1807, rejected Italiäner and italiänisch as un-German forms and recommended Italier and italisch.^[7] Paul's dictionary lists a long series of German words borrowed from Italian, from Bank and Konto to Spaß and Zitrone.^[8]

Timeline

• 1350–1650 – Early New High German italianisch, italienisch is recorded.^[3]
• 16th century – welsch comes to mean chiefly “Italian”.^[4][5]
• 1793 – Adelung writes Italiänisch.^[6]
• 1807 – Campe rejects italiänisch in favour of italisch.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Italian: relating to Italien or the Italians, coming from them: die italienische Küche.^[9][1]
2. In the Italian language: ein italienisch gesungenes Lied.^[9]

Word family

• Italienisch

Related words

• Italien
• Italiener
• welsch

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
4. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 27, 1327
5. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 1370
7. ^ a b Campe, Joachim Heinrich (1807–1811), Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache, 5 vols., Braunschweig: Schulbuchhandlung, p. 2, 832b
8. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag