Etymologically
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nicht

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Pronunciation

  • /nɪçt/, [nɪxt], [nɪçt][1]

Forms

nicht[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German niht, inherited from Old High German niowiht, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *naiwwiht.[2][1][3] It was fused from a phrase that Kluge reconstructs as Proto-Germanic *ne aiwin wihtes (“not of a being”), made of the negative particle Old High German ni, io (“ever”) (modern je) and wiht (“being, thing”) (modern Wicht), so that it first meant “not anything”.[2][3][4] A shorter form without “ever”, niwiht, existed beside it.[5][6]

The same formation is found in Old Saxon neowiht, Old Frisian nāwet and Old English nōwiht, from which come English nought and not.[3][7][2] Gothic 𐌽𐌹 𐍅𐌰𐌹𐌷𐍄𐍃 (ni waihts, “nothing”) is a simpler phrase without “ever”.[2][3] The particle was added to strengthen the plain negation ni and in the end replaced it.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German niowiht and niwiht are recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses of about 765 and in the Abrogans, and then in Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.[8][6] They meant “nothing” and, as adverbs, “not at all, in no way, never”, and could be used as a noun, “a nothing, vanity”.[6][9]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle High German niht was a pronoun and noun meaning “nothing”, and could be added to the real negation, the particle ne or en before the verb, as in Middle High German ich enweiʒ (es) niht “I do not know (it)”.[3][7] From the 12th century the particle before the verb disappeared, and niht alone carried the negation; the particle was gone for good in the 15th century.[3][7]

As a pronoun “nothing”, niht competed from the 14th century with its genitive nihtes, the modern nichts, which drove it out of this use in the 16th century.[7][4] Luther could still write Da aber die Taube nicht fand “but the dove found nothing” (Genesis 8:9).[7] The old noun survives in mitnichten “by no means” and zunichte “ruined”.[3][4] In the dialects and colloquial speech the word is weakened to southern nit and northern nich.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German niowiht appears in glosses.[8]
  • 12th century – The negative particle before the verb begins to disappear, leaving niht as the negation.[3][7]
  • 14th century – Nihtes, the later nichts, begins to compete with niht meaning “nothing”.[7][4]
  • 15th century – The old preverbal particle en has disappeared.[7]
  • 15th century – The derivative nichtig “void, worthless” is first recorded.[3]
  • 16th century – Nicht gives up the sense “nothing” to nichts.[7]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Not: negating a verb, adjective, adverb or other part of a sentence: er raucht nicht “he does not smoke”;[10][1] nicht nur …, sondern auch “not only … but also”.[10][1]
  2. Before an adjective of negative meaning, expressing a guarded approval (litotes): sie ist nicht unfreundlich “she is quite friendly”.[10]

Particle

  1. In questions expecting the answer “yes”, and as a tag question: ist es nicht herrlich hier? “isn't it lovely here?”;[10][1] das ist doch dein Bruder, nicht? “that's your brother, isn't it?”[10][1]

Word family

  • nichts
  • nichtig
  • vernichten
  • mitnichten
  • zunichte

Usage notes

A mining word Nicht (masculine or neuter) “zinc oxide, zinc white”, first recorded in 1578, was probably borrowed from Greek and Latin onychitis, but was early identified with nicht; hence also the Latin name nihil for the substance.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 654
  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 c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  5. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 690
  6. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 1009
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 238
  10. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  11. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 712