manchmal

Forms

manchmal^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from German manch + Mal, the uninflected pronoun run together with the noun, recorded from the 16th century.^[2][3][4][1] The first part is Middle High German manec, Old High German manag, Proto-Germanic *managaz, first an adjective meaning “many, much”.^[2] The same word is Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐍃 (manags, “much”), Old English manig and English many, and outside Germanic it is compared with Old Church Slavonic мъного (mŭnogo, “much”) and Old Irish menicc (“frequent”).^[2] The spelling with ⟨ch⟩ appeared first in Central German in the Middle High German period and became the rule in New High German, backed by Luther.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer dates manchmal “now and then” to the 16th century, and the Early New High German dictionary gives both “sometimes” and “often”.^[2][5] Stieler records it as meaning “several times, many times, at times”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Beside it the form mannigmal was sometimes used, as by Rabener and Wieland, without becoming established as mannigfalt did.^[4] The German Wiktionary notes that the older sense “many times” lives on in Low German mennigmal.^[6] In modern German manchmal means “from time to time”, and is often set against oft, as in Goethe.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 16th century – manchmal is first recorded.^[2]
• 1624 – Zinkgref writes ob manchmahl schon obsieget gewalt “though force sometimes wins”.^[4]
• 18th century – Wieland and Rabener use the variant mannigmal.^[4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. sometimes, now and then, at irregular intervals: Manchmal fahre ich mit dem Rad zur Arbeit.^[3][1]
2. In some cases: Manchmal ist Schweigen die bessere Antwort.^[3]

Related words

• manch
• Mal
• mannigfaltig
• Menge

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ 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, 1533
5. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
6. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org