Etymologically
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nennen

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Pronunciation

Forms

nennen (irregular weak, third-person singular present nennt, past tense nannte, past participle genannt, past subjunctive nennte, auxiliary haben)[1] The past tense and participle nannte, genannt have the vowel without umlaut, as in brennen.[2] Forms with umlaut, such as the indicative nennte and the participle genennet, are not rare until the 18th century.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German nennen, inherited from Old High German nemnen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *namnijan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *namnijaną (“to name”), a verb derived from the noun that is now Name.[3][4][1] The same verb is Gothic 𐌽𐌰𐌼𐌽𐌾𐌰𐌽 (namnjan), Old Norse nefna, Old English nemnan, Old Frisian namna and Old Saxon nemnian, and today Swedish nämna and Icelandic nefna.[3][4] Kluge notes that the suffix of the noun appears here in its zero grade, and compares the parallel formations Latin nōminō from nōmen and Ancient Greek ὀνομάζω (onomázō) from ὄνομα (ónoma); the first sense was thus “to give a name”.[3][5] Wiktionary notes that similar verbs in Hittite and Greek might point to a denominative verb already in Indo-European, but that they are more likely independent formations.[1]

In Old High German the cluster /mn/ is kept mainly in Isidor and the Tatian; elsewhere it was assimilated to /nn/, and in Alemannic to /mm/.[6] Pfeifer dates the form with /mm/ to about 800 and that with /nn/ to the 9th century.[4] A form with a different vowel grade, Proto-West Germanic *nōmijan, underlies Dutch noemen and Old Frisian nōmia.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German nemnen is first recorded in glosses at the end of the 8th or beginning of the 9th century, and then in Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and other texts.[6][7] It meant “to designate, give a name, name, mention, mean, address, call”, also “to testify”;[6][8] zi guote nemnen was “to bless” and zi ubile nemnen “to curse”.[6][8]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German nemmen, nennen meant “to give a name, call by name”, also “to fix, determine, appoint, declare, proclaim, praise”, and the participle genant could mean “famous”.[6] Luther writes da ward sein Name genennet Jesus (Luke 2:21).[2]

Paul compares nennen with transitive heißen: both can add a name or a description, as in das nenne ich einen Freund “that is what I call a friend”, but only nennen can stand without such an addition, meaning “to say someone's name”.[2] The prefixed verbs benennen and ernennen go back to Middle High German.[9] Nenner was used at the end of the 15th century for the nominative and, from the early 16th century, translating Medieval Latin denominator, for the number below the line of a fraction, which “names” the fraction.[4][9]

Timeline

  • Late 8th century – Old High German nemnen appears in glosses.[6]
  • c. 800 – The assimilated form nemmen appears.[4]
  • 9th century – The form nennen appears.[4]
  • End of the 15th century – Nenner is used for the nominative case.[4]
  • Early 16th century – Nenner is used for the denominator of a fraction.[4]
  • 18th century – The past forms nennte and genennet are still in use.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To name, to give a name to: Sie nannten die Katze Minka.[10][1]
  2. To call, to describe as: jemanden einen Feigling nennen.[10][1]
  3. To address by a name or form of address.[10][1]
  4. To state, to tell: den Preis nennen.[10][1]
  5. To mention, to cite: Beispiele nennen.[10][11]
  6. To name a candidate or participant, to nominate.[10][11]
  7. (reflexive) To be called; to call oneself, to claim to be.[10][1]
  8. (sports) To enter for a competition.[10]

Word family

  • benennen
  • Benennung
  • ernennen
  • Ernennung
  • Nenner
  • nennenswert
  • Nennung
  • Nennwert
  • umbenennen

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  3. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 652
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 890
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 235
  9. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  11. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org