Etymologically
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liegen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈliːɡən/, [ˈliːɡən], [ˈliːɡŋ̍][1]

Forms

liegen (class 5 strong, third-person singular present liegt, past tense lag, past participle gelegen, past subjunctive läge, auxiliary haben or sein)[1] The spelling liegen, with ⟨ie⟩ for the long vowel, appears in the 16th century for older ligen.[2] From the 12th century the contracted forms lît “lies” and lîst “you lie” were common;[2] leit and leist lasted into the 17th century.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ligen, inherited from Old High German liggen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *liggjan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną (“to lie”).[3][4][1][5] The same strong verb is Old Norse liggja, Old English licgan, Old Frisian lidza, Old Saxon liggian and Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan); the Gothic verb probably lost the /j/ of its present later.[3][5] Its causative is legen, literally “to make lie”.[3][4]

It continues the root Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down, lie”), with the same present formation in Old Irish laigid (“lies down”) and in Old Church Slavonic ложе (lože, “bed”).[3] Other relatives are Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos, “bed”), Latin lectus (“bed”), Russian лежать (ležátʹ, “to lie”), Hittite lagāri (“bends”) and Tocharian B leke (“bed, couch”).[3][4]

The double consonant of the Old High German present arose from the /j/ and belonged only to the present; the modern form generalised the single consonant of the second and third persons singular.[6][1] Unlike verbs such as geben, the vowel of the present stayed /i/ in all persons.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German liggen appears in Alemannic glosses of the end of the 8th or beginning of the 9th century, then in the Benedictine Rule, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[6][7] It meant to lie, be situated, remain lying, be ready, succumb and also to sleep with someone; the past participle gilegan also meant “related, near”.[6][8]

Semantic evolution

Paul notes that the verb, like sitzen and stehen, once also meant entering the state, “to lie down”; this survives in erliegen and unterliegen and in Swiss usage.[9][10] For the same reason the perfect was formed with sein, as in Luther and Goethe, and it still is in the south.[9] Liegendes Gut “immovable property” was contrasted with fahrende Habe “movables”; from it came Liegenschaft (early 19th century).[9][4]

The noun Anliegen “request, concern” goes back to the 15th century, Angelegenheit “matter” to the 17th; the furniture called Liege dates from the first half of the 20th century.[4][11]

Timeline

  • Late 8th century – Old High German liggen in Alemannic glosses.[6][8]
  • c. 800 – Old High German untarliggen, the ancestor of unterliegen.[4]
  • 15th century – The noun Anliegen is recorded.[4]
  • 16th century – The spelling liegen appears.[2]
  • 17th century – Angelegenheit is recorded.[4]
  • Early 19th century – Liegenschaft “real estate”.[4]
  • First half of the 20th century – Liege “couch”.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To lie, be in a horizontal position: Die Katze liegt auf dem Sofa.[10][1]
  2. (Switzerland) To lie down.[10][1]
  3. To be somewhere, of flat objects, and of patients in a hospital: Der Brief liegt auf dem Tisch.[10][1]
  4. To be located, of places: Das Dorf liegt an einem See.[10][1]
  5. To be at a certain level or rank: Die Temperatur liegt bei zehn Grad.[1][12]
  6. With an: to be due to: Das liegt am Wetter.[1][12]
  7. With a dative: to suit, be easy for: Mathematik liegt ihr nicht.[12]

Word family

  • abliegen
  • anliegen
  • Anliegen
  • Anlieger
  • aufliegen
  • erliegen
  • obliegen
  • unterliegen
  • vorliegen
  • Liege
  • Liegenschaft
  • liegenlassen
  • naheliegen
  • brachliegen

Usage notes

In the 16th and 17th centuries liegen was also the usual spelling of lügen “to tell lies”, which allowed puns such as Weckherlin's.[2][13]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 999
  3. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 578
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 1256
  7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 200
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ a b c 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 d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  11. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 513
  12. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  13. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de