mit

Forms

mit^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German mit, inherited from Old High German mit, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *midi, inherited from Proto-Germanic *midi (“with”).^[2][3][1] The same word is Gothic 𐌼𐌹𐌸 (miþ), Old Norse með, Old English mid, Old Frisian mith, Old Saxon mid and Dutch met.^[2][3][4] Kroonen writes the Germanic form as *medi and explains it as an old locative case of an Indo-European root noun.^[4]

Outside Germanic the closest match is Ancient Greek μετά (metá, “among, between, with”),^[2][5][6] but Kluge points out that the Germanic word could also go back to a form with /dʰ/.^[2] Pfeifer starts from Proto-Indo-European *meta, *meti or *medʰi (“in the middle of”), and with a question mark he also compares Sanskrit स्मत् (smát, “together, at the same time”).^[3] Kluge thinks it likely that at least the first part of the word is related to Mitte.^[2]

Old High German used the short form mostly as a preposition and miti mostly as an adverb.^[7][8] The final vowel of the longer form is the regular one, while the short form either copied adverbs with a long root syllable or lost its unstressed final vowel.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German mit and miti are recorded from the last quarter of the 8th century, in glosses and in the literary texts, as preposition and adverb; they meant “with, together with, among, by means of” and rendered Latin prepositions such as cum, apud and per.^[7][9] Schützeichel finds it in nearly every Old High German text, from Isidor and Tatian to Otfrid and Notker, also in phrases such as mit rehte “rightly”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Paul takes its oldest use to be with verbs of motion, naming someone or something that takes part in the movement; from there it spread to every verb of action, but not to verbs of resting in a place, where German uses bei.^[11] The Grimms note that Gothic used it only for joining and being together, and that the sense of the means or instrument developed later.^[12] In Middle High German it already expressed company, mutual relations, attendant circumstances and the instrument.^[13]

Middle High German kept the adverb mite apart from the preposition mit, and an adverb mitte still turns up in East Central German writers of the 16th and 17th centuries, such as Mathesius, Jakob Böhme and Paul Fleming.^[12] The prefix forms many words: Mitarbeiter (16th century, Luther) translates Greek synergós, Mitlauter (16th century), later Mitlaut (18th century), translates Konsonant, and mitunter was formed in the 17th century.^[3] Mitesser “blackhead” (17th century) reflects the old belief that these were worms in the skin that ate a person's food.^[3][6]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 8th century – Old High German mit and miti appear in glosses.^[7][9]
• 9th century – The two-syllable adverb miti is recorded.^[3]
• 1060–1065 – Middle High German mit in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs.^[14]
• 16th century – Luther uses Mitarbeiter, a translation of Greek synergós.^[3]
• 16th–17th century – The separate adverb mitte survives in East Central German.^[12]
• 17th century – Mitesser “blackhead” and mitunter are first recorded.^[3]
• 18th century – Mitlaut replaces the older Mitlauter for “consonant”.^[3]

Meanings

Preposition

1. With the dative: with, together with, in the company of: Sie fährt mit ihrer Schwester nach Hamburg.^[15][1]
2. With, against, naming the other party in a mutual action: Er hat sich mit seinem Nachbarn versöhnt.^[15]
3. With, having, naming a part, feature or accessory: eine Wohnung mit Balkon.^[15][1]
4. Including: Die Fahrt kostet dreißig Euro mit Gepäck.^[15][1]
5. Of, containing: eine Kiste mit Äpfeln.^[15]
6. With, naming the manner or the circumstances: Er arbeitete mit großer Sorgfalt.^[15][1]
7. With, by, naming the instrument, means or material: Sie schreibt mit einem Bleistift, mit dem Fahrrad zur Arbeit fahren.^[15][1]
8. At, naming a time or an age: Mit achtzehn Jahren zog er aus.^[1]
9. (informal) Regarding, with: Wie steht es mit deinem Referat?^[15][1]
10. (regional) Up to and including: Montag mit Freitag; in Switzerland bis und mit.^[15]

Adverb

1. Too, also, as well: Er war bei dem Ausflug mit dabei.^[1][15]
2. Among, one of: Das war mit der schönste Abend des Sommers.^[1]

Word family

• mit-
• mitsamt
• miteinander
• mithin
• mitnichten
• mitunter
• damit
• hiermit
• womit
• Mitarbeiter
• Mitesser
• Mitlaut
• Mitgift

Related words

• Mitte
• English mid

Usage notes

Words for music performance taken into English include mit Empfindung “with feeling” and mit Wärme “with warmth”.^[16] The Swiss bis und mit and the regional Montag mit Freitag mean “up to and including”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 627
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 558
7. ^ a b c d Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 509
8. ^ 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, 700
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 226
11. ^ Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
12. ^ 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, 2323
13. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 1, 2178
14. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
15. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
16. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de