künftig

Forms

künftig (strong nominative masculine singular künftiger, not comparable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German künftic, inherited from Old High German kumftīg, formed from Old High German kumft (“coming, arrival”) + -īg: properly “about to come, characterised by coming”.^[2][3][4] The adjective exists only in German.^[3]

The noun, the modern archaic Kunft, is the abstract noun of kommen, and survives in Ankunft, Herkunft, Abkunft and Zukunft.^[2] Its /f/ is a glide between the old /m/ of the verb and the /t/ of the suffix; without it the same formation is Old Norse samkund, and Gothic has it too.^[2] The verb continues Proto-Germanic *kwemaną (“to come”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- (“to step, come”), also the source of Latin veniō (“I come”) and Ancient Greek βαίνω (baínō, “I go”).^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German kumftīg is first recorded in the Weißenburg Catechism (perhaps about 790), and then in Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “future, coming”.^[6][7] Adelung notes that the Isidor translation and the Benedictine Rule used other words for “future”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In early use the sense of coming was still clearly felt: Christ “is künftig” to judge the living and the dead, and Middle High German says it of enemies who are approaching.^[8] From there the word came to mean simply “future”, of anything that will come or happen, as in die künftige Woche.^[8][7] Adelung also records the adverb, “in time to come”, and ins künftige “in future”, and notes that a comparative is hardly ever used and a superlative only rarely.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 790 – Old High German kumftīg appears in the Weißenburg Catechism.^[6]
• 1060s – Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs uses it.^[9][7]
• c. 1150 – Middle High German künftic is used in the Kaiserchronik.^[9]
• 1793 – Adelung records the adjective and the adverb künftig “in future”.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. future, belonging to the time to come: künftige Generationen, sein künftiger Chef.^[4][1]

Adverb

1. In future, from now on, henceforth: das Museum bleibt künftig montags geschlossen.^[4][1]

Related words

• Kunft
• Zukunft
• zukünftig
• Ankunft
• Herkunft
• kommen

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 549
3. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 486
4. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 516
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d e f Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
8. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 11, 2648
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling