liefern

Forms

liefern (third-person singular present liefert, past tense lieferte, past participle geliefert, auxiliary haben)^[1] Early forms vary: li(e)vern, liebern, and even lübern, lüfern; the spelling liefern prevails from the 16th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle Low German lēveren (“to deliver”), a term of the Hanseatic merchants, borrowed from Old French livrer (“to hand over, deliver”), from Latin līberō (“to free, release”).^[4][3][5] The Latin verb, from līber (“free”), had developed in Medieval Latin the senses “to send away”, “to hand over, pay, supply”, used of dues, interest and prisoners.^[3][2] Middle Dutch lēveren has the same source, and the High German word came from the Low German trade language into the standard language.^[4][3][6] Wiktionary allows that lieveren may have been taken directly from Old French, but thinks its diphthong a hypercorrection, which points to a Low German model.^[1] The same word is Dutch leveren, Swedish leverera and French livrer, and English deliver is related.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle Low German lēveren is recorded from the middle of the 14th century, and High German li(e)vern from about 1400;^[3][7][2] Paul and the Grimms date it to the 14th century.^[3][7][2] The earliest records are about natural dues owed to a lord, such as wheat and wine to be delivered on a fixed day.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The Early New High German dictionary records the senses “to deliver, hand over” (things), “to hand someone over” (also of Christ), “to provide and keep troops”, and the phrase jemandem eine Schlacht liefern “to give battle”.^[8] In modern use it also means “to produce, yield” (das Land liefert Rohstoffe) and, figuratively, “to provide” (a reason, a proof).^[7][9]

geliefert sein “to be done for” is first recorded with Jean Paul (1798); it comes from a criminal handed over for punishment, short for “handed over to the executioner”.^[7][6] Lieferung (early 16th century) has also meant an instalment of a book published in parts since the 19th century: the first instalment of the Grimms' dictionary appeared in 1852.^[7][3] Lieferant (1712), with a Romance-looking suffix, won out over Lieferer (Stieler 1691).^[7][3] The verb passed into Hungarian (liferál, 1835, liferáns, 1790), Czech and Slovak (lifrovat, lifrovať) and Polish (liwerować).^[10][1]

Timeline

• Mid-14th century – Middle Low German lēveren is recorded.^[3]
• c. 1400 – High German li(e)vern appears.^[3]
• 1483 – A Middle Rhenish legal record speaks of delivering wheat (liebern) to a lord.^[2]
• Early 16th century – Lieferung “delivery” appears.^[3][7]
• 16th century – The spelling liefern prevails.^[2]
• 1691 – Stieler records Lieferer “supplier”.^[3][7]
• 1712 – Lieferant “supplier” is recorded.^[7]
• 1798 – Jean Paul uses geliefert sein “to be done for”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To deliver goods that were ordered or bought: Wir liefern die Waschmaschine am Freitag.^[9][1]
2. To produce, yield: Der Weinberg liefert gute Erträge.^[9][1]
3. To provide, furnish: einen Beweis liefern, Stoff für Gerüchte liefern; of a player or performer, to put on a performance: Die Torhüterin lieferte ein starkes Spiel.^[9][11]
4. (reflexive) sich etwas liefern, to fight out: sich eine Schlacht, ein Wortgefecht liefern.^[9][1]
5. (colloquial) geliefert sein, to be done for, ruined.^[6][7]

Word family

• abliefern
• ausliefern
• beliefern
• überliefern
• Lieferung
• Lieferant
• Lieferer
• lieferbar

Related words

• Livree
• liberal
• English deliver

Usage notes

The Grimms list a separate, older liefern “to curdle, coagulate”, a variant of libbern, used mainly in the participle of blood: Luther speaks of geliefert blut “clotted blood” in his Table Talk.^[2]

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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 996
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 577
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 523
6. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org