mindestens

Forms

mindestens^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from mindest “least” with the adverbial genitive ending -ens, remodelling the older phrase zum Mindesten.^[1][2][3]

Its base is Middle High German minnest, Old High German minnist, from Proto-Germanic *minnistaz, the superlative belonging to minder; the same word is Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌽𐌽𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (minnists) and Old Norse minnstr.^[4][2] The ⟨d⟩ arose in Early New High German between /n/ and /r/ in the comparative, minner, and was later carried over to the superlative.^[4][5]

Outside Germanic the comparative is matched by Latin minor and Latin minimus.^[4] Kluge derives the Germanic /nn/ from /nw/, after a present like Latin minuō (“to lessen”), Ancient Greek μινύθω (minúthō) and Sanskrit मिनाति (minā́ti), formed from the root Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“to lessen”).^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Grimms' dictionary says that the word came up for zum mindesten fairly late and was first entered in dictionaries at the beginning of the 18th century: Kramer's German–Dutch dictionary (1719) has minstens “at least”.^[3] Duden also dates it to the 18th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It took over from the older zum mindesten and zum wenigsten, as Adelung records.^[7][3] The Grimms quote it from poetry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, from Gökingk's songs (1779) to Platen and Annette von Droste-Hülshoff.^[3]

Modern usage has two senses: with numbers, “no less than”, and in a wider sense “at any rate”, the same as wenigstens and zumindest.^[8]

Timeline

• 1719 – Kramer's dictionary records minstens.^[3]
• 1779 – Gökingk uses mindstens in a love song.^[3]
• 1793 – Adelung explains mindestens as zum mindesten.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. With a number or amount: at least, no fewer than: Die Reparatur kostet mindestens zweihundert Euro.^[8][1]
2. In any case, at least: Er hätte sich mindestens bedanken können.^[8][9]

Related words

• minder
• mindest
• wenigstens
• zumindest

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 555
3. ^ 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, 2235
4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 623
5. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 455
6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
8. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org