meinen

Forms

meinen (third-person singular present meint, past tense meinte, past participle gemeint, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German meinen, inherited from Old High German meinen, inherited from Proto-Germanic *mainijaną (“to mean, think”).^[2][3][1] The verb is found only in West Germanic: the same word is Old Saxon mēnian (“to mean, mention, intend”), Old English mǣnan, Old Frisian mēna and mēnen, and today Dutch menen and English mean.^[2][3][4] The Scandinavian forms such as Swedish mena were borrowed from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch.^[4][5] Outside Germanic it is related to Old Church Slavonic мѣнити (měniti, “to think, mention, consider”) and to Old Irish mían (“wish, desire”).^[2][3][6][7]

The further origin is disputed.^[8] Kluge and Wahrig connect it with the root of Meineid and gemein, Proto-Indo-European *moino- (“exchange”), so that the verb first meant “to give one's opinion in turn”.^[2][9] Pfeifer sets up a root Proto-Indo-European *mein- (“opinion, intention”), and Kroonen and Wiktionary a causative Proto-Indo-European *moyn-éye-ti.^[3][6][1] The EWA rejects the causative, since the Germanic verbs have no causative sense, and takes the verb as derived from a noun matching the Celtic word, from the root Proto-Indo-European *(h₂)mey- (“to change, exchange”), with a development “wish for change” > “wish”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German meinen is recorded from the 8th century, in Isidor, the Weißenburger Katechismus (790), Otfrid and Notker, but in the glosses not before the 9th century.^[4][10] It meant “to have in mind, intend, signify, say”, and ih meino was used for “that is, namely”.^[11][4]

Semantic evolution

Paul describes the basic sense as “to have one's mind on something”, used of what a speaker has in mind (wen meinst du?) and of the intention behind actions, as in Luther.^[12] With an adverb it expressed an attitude to someone, as in es gut mit jemandem meinen.^[12][13] From the sense “to direct one's thoughts towards someone, be well disposed” Middle High German developed the sense “to love”, which survived in prose until the 17th century and in verse until the 19th, as in Schenkendorf's Freiheit, die ich meine.^[3][7][12]

The sense now most common, “to be of the opinion”, is already found in Luther; in Middle High German this was expressed by wænen.^[12] The noun Meinung, Old High German meinunga (about 1000), follows the senses of the verb;^[3][12] öffentliche Meinung (1798, Wieland) is a loan translation of French opinion publique, replacing older gemeine Meinung (Stieler, 1691).^[3][12] vermeinen goes back to Old High German firmeinen “to explain, prove” (9th century), and vermeintlich “supposed” is recorded from the 16th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German meinen is used in Isidor.^[4]
• 790 – The verb appears in the Weißenburger Katechismus.^[10]
• 9th century – firmeinen “to explain, prove” is recorded.^[3]
• c. 1000 – The noun meinunga is recorded.^[3]
• 13th century – Middle High German meinen “to love” is recorded.^[2]
• 16th century – Luther uses the verb for “to be of the opinion”;^[12][3] vermeintlich appears.^[12][3]
• 1798 – Wieland uses öffentliche Meinung.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To think, be of the opinion: er meint, es werde bald regnen.^[13][1]
2. To mean to say, to express: was meinte er mit diesem Satz?^[13][1]
3. To have in mind, to refer to: welchen Film meinst du?^[13][1]
4. (formal) To believe, imagine: sie meinte, Schritte zu hören.^[13]
5. To say or do something with a certain intention: es gut meinen.^[13][12]
6. To say, remark: „Schon gut“, meinte sie.^[1]

Word family

• Meinung
• vermeinen
• vermeintlich
• gemeint
• wohlmeinend

Related words

• Meineid
• gemein
• English mean

Usage notes

Kluge gives a separate, archaic meinen “to love”, recorded from the 13th century, which he takes as probably related to Minne and influenced early on by the common verb.^[2] Pfeifer and the Duden instead derive the sense “to love” from the common verb itself.^[3][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 613
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 241
5. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1924
6. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 546
9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 218
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
13. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag