jung

Forms

jung (strong nominative masculine singular junger, comparative jünger, superlative am jüngsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German junc, inherited from Old High German jung, inherited from Proto-Germanic *jungaz (“young”).^[2][3][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌾𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍃 (juggs), Old Saxon jung, Old Norse ungr, Old English geong and Old Frisian jung, and today Dutch jong, English young and Swedish ung.^[2][3][4] Pfeifer derives the Germanic form from an older *juwunga-.^[4]

It is an extension with a k-suffix of the Indo-European adjective for “young”: Proto-Indo-European *i̯uu̯ṇk̑ós, from the stem *i̯uu̯en-.^[4][2] The same formation is found in Latin iuvencus (“young bull; young man”) and Old Irish óac (“young”), and the simple stem in iuvenis (“young”) and Lithuanian jáunas (“young”).^[2][5][4] Wiktionary explains the short vowel by Osthoff's law and the /g/ by Verner's law.^[1] Kroonen reports the usual analysis as a possessive formation from the word for “lifetime”, “having lifetime left”, but would rather derive it from a verbal base “to mature”, comparing Tocharian B yäw- (“to ripen”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German jung is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses of about 765, and then in Tatian, the Benedictine Rule, Otfrid, the Ludwigslied and Notker.^[6][7][8] It meant “young”, also “new” and “virginal”, and was used of animals too; the superlative jungisto meant “last”, and the comparative jungiro was early used as a noun for “disciple”, the ancestor of Jünger.^[6][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “new, fresh”, as in der junge Tag or junge Triebe, spread only in New High German, perhaps supported by Old High German zi jungist “at last” and the biblical Jüngster Tag and Jüngstes Gericht, in which the word means “last”.^[9][10] In Junges Deutschland (1834, Ludolf Wienbarg), the name of a literary movement, it means “progressive, modern”, and the Junggrammatiker (1878) were linguists of a new, strict method;^[9][11] English took over Junggrammatiker in 1922.^[9][11]

The noun das Junge “young animal” is old, from Old High German jungo (9th century), while der Junge “boy”, mainly northern and central, is a 16th-century shortening of phrases such as der junge Knabe.^[4][10] Jungfrau first meant a young unmarried noblewoman; through the Virgin Mary it came to mean “virgin”.^[4][12] Junggeselle was a young journeyman in the 15th century and an unmarried man from the 16th.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German jung appears in glosses.^[7]
• 9th century – jungo “young animal” is recorded.^[4]
• c. 1000 – jungfrouwa “young noblewoman” is recorded.^[4]
• 15th century – jungen “to bear young” and Junggeselle “young journeyman” appear.^[4]
• 16th century – der Junge “boy” and verjüngen appear.^[4]
• 1834 – Ludolf Wienbarg names the movement Junges Deutschland.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. young: not yet old, of people, animals and plants: ein junger Lehrer, junge Katzen.^[13][1]
2. Younger or youngest of two or more: ihre jüngere Schwester;^[13] (colloquial, jocular) of a certain not great age: die zwanzig Jahre junge Sängerin.^[13]
3. youthful in looks, manner or spirit: Er ist jung geblieben.^[13]
4. New, existing only for a short time: ein junges Unternehmen.^[13][10]
5. (superlative) Most recent: die jüngsten Ereignisse.^[13][14]

Word family

• Junge
• jungen
• verjüngen
• Jungfrau
• jungfräulich
• Jungfer
• Junggeselle
• Jungbrunnen
• Jünger
• Jüngling
• jüngst
• Junker

Related words

• Jugend
• Junior
• English young

Usage notes

Jung und Alt means “everyone”.^[13] The proverb jung gewohnt, alt getan says that habits learned when young come easily later; it is recorded in Early New High German.^[13][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 458
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 315
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 170
9. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
13. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
14. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org