Etymologically
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meist

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Pronunciation

Forms

meist[1] A by-form meinst was common in Upper and Central German sources for several centuries, into the 17th; the Carolina of 1533 has die meinste beschwerung.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German meist, inherited from Old High German meist, inherited from Proto-Germanic *maistaz (“most”).[3][4][1] The same superlative is Old Saxon mēst, Old Norse mestr, Old English mǣst and Old Frisian māst, and it continues in Dutch meest, English most and Swedish mest.[3][4][5]

It was formed with the superlative suffix *-istaz from the same base as the comparative mehr; together they serve as the comparison of viel.[3][4][6] Pfeifer and Wahrig trace the base to a root Proto-Indo-European *mē- (“big, considerable”), in its zero grade.[4][7] The Grimms explain that a consonant at the end of the root was lost, so that the comparative and superlative developed separately and hardly look related any longer; this is why a new superlative mehrst could be formed.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer dates the Old High German adjective meisto to the 8th century and the adverb meist to the 8th or 9th; the adverb appears in glosses of the early 9th century, in Otfrid and in Notker, meaning “most, most of all, especially”.[4][8][9] Notker also uses meist as a noun, “the greatest amount”.[10]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German meist meant “greatest, most” and also “mightiest, strongest”;[11][12] das meiste was the greater part or the majority, and the adverb ranged over “mostly, at most, as much as possible”.[11][12] Early New High German also used it for “at most, no more than” and for “often”.[13] Adelung records am meisten and notes that meist for “usually” belonged to everyday speech, while the biblical aufs meiste “at the most” was no longer standard.[14]

Today the adverb meist “usually” stands beside meistens, and the pronoun die meisten means the majority.[15]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German meisto “most” is recorded.[4][3]
  • Early 9th century – The adverb meist appears in glosses.[8]
  • 1060–1065 – Middle High German meiste is found in Williram's paraphrase of the Song of Songs.[12]
  • 1533 – The Carolina uses the by-form meinst.[2]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. usually, in most cases, mostly: Am Wochenende schläft sie meist lange.[15][1]

Pronoun

  1. (meist…) The greatest number or amount of something: Wer hat die meisten Punkte?[15]
  2. (meist…) The larger part, the majority: die meisten Besucher, das meiste davon.[15]
  3. (am meisten) most, to the greatest degree; also forming superlatives: das am meisten gelesene Buch.[15]

Word family

  • meistens
  • allermeist
  • zumeist
  • meistenteils

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 1947
  3. ^ a b c d 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 Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 546
  7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 219
  10. ^ Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 378
  11. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 2084
  12. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  14. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  15. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag