nah

Forms

nah (strong nominative masculine singular naher, comparative näher, superlative am nächsten)^[1] The longer form nahe, originally the adverb, appears from the middle of the 15th century and is used beside nah.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German nāch, inherited from Old High German nāh, inherited from Proto-Germanic *nēhwaz (“near”).^[4][5][6] The same word is Gothic 𐌽𐌴𐍈𐌰 (neƕa, “near”), Old Norse ná- (in compounds), Old English nēah, Old Frisian nēi and Old Saxon nāh, and today Dutch na and English nigh.^[4][7][5] The preposition nach was originally its adverb.^[8][1]

Its origin is uncertain, and the sources disagree.^[5][3] Kluge and the Duden take it as an adjective formed from a local particle that appears as Old Church Slavonic на (na, “on, at, to”), so that it first meant “inclined towards”.^[4][9] Kroonen explains it as a lengthened-grade formation from Proto-Indo-European *h₂nek- (“to reach”), the root of genug;^[7][5] Pfeifer mentions this as one possibility, beside a compound of the root of an and of Auge, Proto-Indo-European *okʷ- (“to see”).^[7][5]

In Middle High German /h/ was pronounced as a fricative at the end of a syllable, so that nāch alternated with inflected nāher.^[5][10] The standard language levelled the alternation, but the superlative nächste kept the old /x/.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German nāh is first recorded as an adverb in glosses of the third quarter of the 8th century and as an adjective in glosses of about 765, then in the Benedictine Rule, Otfrid, the Tatian and Notker, meaning “near”, also “almost”.^[6][11]

Semantic evolution

The word was first an adverb and long remained mainly adverbial; adjectival use began with the superlative nächste, and the positive was at first mostly predicative.^[5][10] Besides space it refers to time and to close relationship, as in nahe Verwandte.^[3][2] Combinations with verbs such as nahe gehen “to affect deeply” (already Middle High German), nahe legen and jemandem zu nahe treten “to offend someone” (1663) became fixed phrases.^[10]

Paul notes that nah alone could mean “almost” (Goethe: er ist nahe 17 Jahr); this sense passed to beinahe and nahezu, formed in New High German.^[10][9] The noun Nähe goes back to Old High German nāhī.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German nāh appears in glosses.^[6]
• 1060–1065 – Middle High German nāch is used by Williram.^[12]
• Mid-15th century – The form nahe appears.^[2]
• 1663 – zu nahe treten is recorded by Schottelius.^[10]
• 18th century – Nächstenliebe appears.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. near, close in space: das nahe Ufer.^[3][1]
2. Close in time, imminent: in naher Zukunft.^[3][1]
3. Close in relationship: ein naher Freund.^[3][13]

Adverb

1. Near, nearby: nah am Fluss.^[3][1]

Word family

• Nähe
• nahen
• nähern
• nächste
• Nächstenliebe
• beinahe
• nahezu
• naheliegend
• Nachbar

Related words

• nach
• genug
• English nigh

Usage notes

Von nah und fern means “from everywhere”, and von nahem “from close up”.^[3] Both nah and nahe are standard.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 13, 275
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 647
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 645
9. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 576
10. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 232
12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org