lernen

Forms

lernen (third-person singular present lernt, past tense lernte, past participle gelernt, auxiliary haben)^[1] Fischart and other writers of the 16th century spelt it lehrnen to show its link with lehren.^[2] After another infinitive the infinitive could stand for the participle: Goethe writes habe ich kennen lernen in Werther.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German lernen, inherited from Old High German lernēn (Upper German lirnēn), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *liʀnōn (“to learn”).^[4][1][5] The same verb is Old Saxon līnon, which lost its /r/, Old English leornian (now English learn) and Old Frisian lernia.^[4][5] North Germanic and Dutch have no such verb and use the verb for “to teach” for both senses.^[2]

Formally it belongs to the type of intransitive or inchoative verbs in -n- that is best developed in Gothic and Norse, so its sense was something like “to become knowing”.^[4][3] It is a zero-grade formation beside lehren, which serves as its causative,^[4][5] and belongs with the preterite-present Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌹𐍃 (lais, “I know”), properly “I have tracked down”.^[5][6] Duden and Paul also connect List and leisten, originally “to follow a track”.^[6][3][7] Köbler traces the group, with a question mark, to Proto-Indo-European *leys- (“track, furrow”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer dates lernēn and lirnēn to the 9th century and the prefixed gilernēn to the 8th.^[5] Köbler finds lirnēn in the Benedictine Rule of about 800 and lernēn in the Tatian (830).^[8] Its Old High German senses were “to learn, get to know, recognize” and also “to meditate”.^[9][8]

Semantic evolution

The use of lernen for lehren “to teach” is found in Central German from the 14th century^[5] and is still heard in colloquial speech: Lessing wrote das hat sie der Geier gelernt and Schiller lern' mich die Pfiffe nicht.^[3] By the end of the 18th century it was regarded as dated and incorrect, and it is now regional or nonstandard.^[10] The past participle gelernt is used as an adjective with an active sense, “trained”, against the general rule, opposite ungelernt.^[3] verlernen “to forget what one has learned” dates from the 17th century.^[5][6] Middle High German had lernære “pupil”, which Sanders called rare, and Lerner became common in the 20th century in language teaching under the influence of English learner.^[3][6]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German gilernēn.^[5]
• c. 800 – lirnēn in the Benedictine Rule.^[8]
• 830 – lernēn in the Old High German Tatian.^[8]
• 14th century – lernen is used for “to teach” in Central German.^[5]
• 16th century – Fischart writes lehrnen.^[2]
• 17th century – verlernen is recorded.^[5]
• 1883 – Nietzsche calls people schlechte Lerner.^[3]
• 20th century – Lerner spreads after English learner.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To acquire knowledge, to study: Sie lernt jeden Abend für die Prüfung.^[7][1]
2. To memorize: ein Lied auswendig lernen.^[7]
3. To acquire a skill: Sie lernt gerade Ski fahren.^[7][1]
4. To come to an attitude or behaviour through experience: Er hat gelernt, geduldig zu sein.^[7]
5. To learn a trade, train as: Sie hat Bäckerin gelernt.^[7][1]
6. (colloquial, nonstandard) To teach.^[1][3]

Word family

• Lerner
• erlernen
• verlernen
• anlernen
• auslernen
• kennenlernen
• umlernen
• gelernt

Related words

• lehren
• Lehre
• List
• leisten
• English learn

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 762
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 573
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 509
7. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
8. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 204
10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org