Etymologically
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mein

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Pronunciation

Forms

mein (possessive determiner and pronoun, mein, meine, mein; used alone meiner, meine, mein(e)s)[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German mīn, inherited from Old High German mīn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *mīn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *mīnaz (“my, mine”).[3][4][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (meins), Old Saxon mīn, Old Frisian mīn, Old English mīn and Old Norse minn, and today Dutch mijn, English mine and Swedish min.[3][4][5]

Pfeifer explains it as an adjective formed with the suffix Proto-Indo-European *-nos from Proto-Indo-European *mei (“at me”), the locative of the stem of the oblique cases of the first person pronoun, seen in mir and mich: it first meant “being with me”, then “belonging to me”.[4][1] Kluge similarly sees a formation of belonging, starting from a locative suffix *-nē added to the originally enclitic pronoun stem *-mei, which is also found in Hittite -mi.[3]

A case form of the possessive also served in Germanic as the genitive of ich, as in 𐌼𐌴𐌹𐌽𐌰 (meina).[4] The longer genitive meiner was formed on the model of unser and euer and spread from Central German in the 13th and 14th centuries.[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German mīn is recorded from the 8th century, both as a possessive “my, mine” and as the genitive “of me”.[4][3][6]

Semantic evolution

Used predicatively, especially with sein and werden, it expresses belonging, as in the Middle High German love verse Du bist min, ich bin din “you are mine, I am yours”.[6] In poetry it could follow its noun, and in popular narrative it was put before the name of a person the speaker is concerned with.[6] In address it has faded to a courtesy (meine Damen, mein Herr), and in the 16th century it was often used with personal names, as in mein Hans.[6] The bare word then became a call for attention, imitated in literature by Goethe.[6]

The adverbs meinethalben and meinetwegen go back to Middle High German phrases with the dative plural: von mînen halben “from my sides”, with loss of the preposition and an inserted /t/.[6] English has taken over mein Gott (recorded 1838) and, as a jocular or ironic address to a German, mein Herr (1922).[7]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German mīn is recorded.[4][3]
  • 13th–14th century – The genitive is extended to mīner, first in Central German.[6][4]
  • 16th century – mein is often used with personal names (mein Hans).[6]
  • 1838 – Mein Gott is recorded in English.[7]
  • 1922 – English uses mein Herr as a jocular address.[7]

Meanings

Determiner and pronoun

  1. my: belonging or relating to the speaker: mein Fahrrad, meine Schwester.[2][1]
  2. (colloquial) The usual one, the one the speaker is used to: Heute habe ich meinen Bus verpasst.[2]
  3. In polite address, with faded meaning: meine Damen und Herren.[2][6]
  4. (without a noun) mine: Der rote Schirm ist meiner.[2]
  5. (colloquial) In oh du mein! and ach du mein!, an exclamation of surprise or alarm.[2]
  6. (dated) Genitive of ich: of me, as in gedenke mein.[6]

Word family

  • meinerseits
  • meinesgleichen
  • meinethalben
  • meinetwegen
  • meinetwillen
  • meinige

Usage notes

A different word, Old High German mein (“false”), with a noun meaning “crime, wickedness”, from Proto-Germanic *mainaz, survives only in Meineid “perjury”.[8][9][10] The Grimms' dictionary records the formula main und mord until the 16th century.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  3. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 613
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ 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
  7. ^ a b c Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 218
  9. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1912