Etymologically
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niemand

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈniːmant/[1]

Forms

niemand[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German nieman, inherited from Old High German nioman (“nobody”), the negative of jemand.[2][3][1] The Old High German word is compounded of the negative particle Old High German ni (“not”), io (“ever”) (as in je) and man (“man, person”), literally “not any man”.[3][4][5][6] The same word is Old Saxon neoman, Middle Low German nēmant, Middle Dutch nieman and Dutch niemand.[2][3][1]

The final ⟨d⟩ is secondary, added from the 14th century, as in the positive pronoun, Dutzend and irgend.[3][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German nioman “nobody, no one” is first recorded in glosses of perhaps after 765 and then often in the Benedictine Rule, Otfrid, the Tatian, Notker and the Muspilli.[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The case forms varied: Old High German had the genitive niomannes and accusative niomannan; the accusative niemand is recorded in 1518 in Geiler von Kaysersberg and niemanden in Steinbach's dictionary of 1734, while the dative niemandem dates from the 18th century, and uninflected forms remain frequent.[7] Adelung, around 1800, gave the genitive niemands and both niemand and niemanden for the dative and accusative.[11]

Used as a noun, ein Niemand is a person of no importance;[7][5] Lessing wrote Ich bin dieser Niemand.[7][5] The compound Niemandsland arose in the First World War for the ground between the front lines.[7] German niemand was borrowed into Czech as nýmand and into Hungarian as nímand.[1]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German nioman is recorded.[2][9]
  • 14th century – The form with final -d (niemant) appears.[7]
  • 1518 – The accusative niemand is recorded in Geiler von Kaysersberg.[7]
  • 18th century – The dative niemandem comes into use.[7]
  • 1914–1918 – Niemandsland is coined in the First World War.[7]

Meanings

Pronoun

  1. Nobody, no one, not a single person: Niemand hat angerufen.[5][1]
  2. Not one of a given group: Wir haben alle gefragt, aber niemand wusste Bescheid.[5]

Noun

  1. ein Niemand: a nobody, a person of no importance.[5][1]

Word family

  • Niemandsland

Usage notes

In the dative and accusative both the inflected forms niemandem, niemanden and the uninflected niemand are used.[5][7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 655
  3. ^ a b c d Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  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. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 456
  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. 238
  11. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf