musikalisch

Forms

musikalisch (strong nominative masculine singular musikalischer, comparative musikalischer, superlative am musikalischsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin musicālis, borrowed at the beginning of the 16th century.^[2][3][4] The Medieval Latin adjective belongs to Latin mūsica (“music”), from Ancient Greek μουσική (mousikḗ), short for “the art of the Muses”, the feminine of μουσικός (mousikós, “of the Muses, musical”), derived from Μοῦσα (Moûsa, “Muse”).^[2][5] Within German, Wiktionary also analyses it as from German Musik + -alisch.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pfeifer dates the adjective to the beginning of the 16th century, meaning “concerning music, following its rules”.^[2][3] The noun had been taken into German much earlier, as Old High German musica in Otfrid's Gospel book (863–871).^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Pfeifer lists its senses as “concerning music, composed by its rules, gifted for music, melodious”.^[2] Frisch's dictionary explained musicalisch with the Latin secundum regulas musicae “according to the rules of music”, and Opitz writes of musicalische instrumente.^[7] The spelling with ⟨k⟩ and the final stress of the noun came in the 17th century under the influence of French musique.^[2][5] The sense “gifted for music, loving music” is recorded by Duden beside the general one.^[3][8]

Timeline

• 863–871 – Otfrid uses the Old High German noun musica.^[6]
• Early 16th century – musikalisch is borrowed from Medieval Latin.^[2]
• 17th century – The noun takes the spelling Musik and final stress.^[2]
• Late 18th century – The noun Musiker appears.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Concerning music: ein musikalischer Abend.^[8][1]
2. Having a feeling or talent for music; musical: Ihr Sohn ist sehr musikalisch.^[8][4]
3. Sounding like music; melodious.^[8][9]

Related words

• Musik
• Musiker
• Musikant
• musizieren
• Muse

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 642
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 12, 2741
8. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag