Etymologically
Log in

kündigen

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 19:32. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • [ˈkʏndɪɡən], [ˈkʏndɪɡn̩], [ˈkʏndɪɡŋ̩][1]

Forms

kündigen (third-person singular present kündigt, past tense kündigte, past participle gekündigt, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German kündigen (“to make known, proclaim”), formed from kündec (“known; knowing”) (modern kundig).[1][2] The base is the adjective kund (“known”), kunt, Old High German kund, from Proto-Germanic *kunþaz (“known”).[3][4] The same adjective is Gothic 𐌺𐌿𐌽𐌸𐍃 (kunþs), Old English cūþ and Old Norse kunnr.[3][5] It was originally the participle of the verb that became können, and goes back to the root Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know, recognise”).[3][4] Wiktionary reconstructs a verb Proto-West Germanic *kunþīgōn (“to make known”).[1]

The sense “to terminate (a contract)” did not come from the old verb directly: the simple verb had nearly died out, and the new meaning was taken over from aufkündigen “to announce the end of an agreement”.[6][7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German kündigen meant “to make known, announce, proclaim”, and is recorded from the late 12th century, in Priester Wernher's Maria (1172–1190), and in charters from 1261.[8][9] Early New High German used it for official announcements in legal texts and for proclaiming God's work in religious ones.[10]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century glossaries still render kündigen with Latin words for “make known, proclaim”, and the Low German Reinke de Vos has vrede kundigen, of a herald proclaiming peace.[2] After that the simple verb fell out of use: Adelung lists it only as obsolete, and knew only abkündigen, ankündigen, aufkündigen and verkündigen, which were all still in everyday use.[2] Poets and writers revived the old sense around 1800, as Goethe did in 1810.[2]

In ordinary speech, however, kündigen came back as a shortened aufkündigen: to give notice on a contract, a lease or a loan.[2][7] Campe was the first to record this, and Kluge dates the narrowed meaning to the 19th century.[2][6] From the contract it spread to the employment relationship, so that an employer can kündigen a worker and a worker can kündigen a job.[7]

Timeline

  • 1172–1190 – Middle High German kündigen “to make known” appears in Priester Wernher's Maria.[8]
  • 1261 – First of 18 records in Middle High German charters.[8]
  • 1482 – A Latin–German vocabulary glosses kundigen as “to make known, to proclaim”.[2]
  • Late 18th century – Adelung records the simple verb only as obsolete.[2]
  • Early 19th century – Campe records kündigen in the sense “to give notice”.[2]
  • 1810 – Goethe uses kündigen in the revived sense “to announce, show”.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To give notice of the end of a contractual arrangement, to terminate or cancel: einen Handyvertrag kündigen.[7][1]
  2. With a dative: to give a tenant notice to quit: Der Vermieter hat uns zum Jahresende gekündigt.[7]
  3. With a dative (in Austria always, elsewhere colloquially, with an accusative): to dismiss an employee: Der Firma blieb nichts anderes übrig, als zehn Leuten zu kündigen.[7][11]
  4. To hand in one's notice, to resign from a job: Sie hat zum Monatsende gekündigt.[7][11]
  5. (figurative) To renounce: jemandem die Freundschaft kündigen “to break off a friendship with someone”.[7]
  6. (archaic) To make known, proclaim.[1][2]

Word family

  • ankündigen
  • aufkündigen
  • verkündigen
  • kündbar
  • Kündigung
  • Kündigungsfrist
  • unkündbar

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 2629
  3. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  5. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de
  6. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 549
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  8. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities
  10. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  11. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org