nutzen

Forms

nutzen (third-person singular present nutzt, past tense nutzte, past participle genutzt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German nutzen (also nützen), inherited from Old High German nuzzōn (“to enjoy, spend”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *nutōną (“to make use of”).^[1][2] Pfeifer derives the Old High German verb from the noun nuzza (“use, cultivation”), and traces the umlauted form to ginuzzen (“to make use of”), recorded in the 9th century, in which the umlaut appears only later.^[2][3] Kluge treats the verb as derived from the noun Nutzen.^[4]

The whole group stands in ablaut with the strong verb Proto-Germanic *neutaną continued in genießen and Gothic 𐌽𐌹𐌿𐍄𐌰𐌽 (niutan, “to reach, obtain”).^[4][2][3] Kroonen starts from the adjective *nuti- (“useful”), seen in Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌽𐌿𐍄𐍃 (unnuts, “useless”), Old English nyt and Old Saxon nutti: in West Germanic it was remodelled as a ja-stem, from which nyttian and the umlauted verb of Old High German were formed.^[5] The Grimms' dictionary compares nytjan and Old Norse nytja, which, like the Old High German verbs, were only transitive.^[6] Wiktionary takes the Germanic root back to Proto-Indo-European *newd- (“to acquire, make use of”), with Lithuanian nauda (“benefit”) as a cognate.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German nuzzōn is found in Otfrid and Notker in the senses “to enjoy” and “to spend (time)”.^[7][2] In Middle High German nutzen and nützen meant “to use, make use of”, “to take as food, eat or drink” and “to be of use”;^[8][9] Köbler's earliest source is Lamprecht's Alexander (1150–1170).^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to take as food or medicine” lived on into Early New High German, where it was also used of receiving the Host,^[10] but Adelung already marks it as obsolete.^[11] The intransitive “to be of use” was by then mostly negative: Adelung notes that people said a thing nutzt nichts rather than that it nutzt.^[11]

Paul explains the double form by region: nutzen was originally Upper German and nützen Central German.^[12] The Grimms quote Frisch to the same effect and record that Adelung found transitive nutzen commoner, while Campe claimed that good writers kept transitive nützen apart from intransitive nutzen; no fixed rule ever took hold, and both forms are still used either way.^[6][12] The same doublets appear in the prefixed verbs abnutzen (15th century) and ausnutzen (end of the 15th century), in which the umlauted form is the rarer one.^[2][12]

Timeline

• 9th century – Old High German nuzzōn and ginuzzen are recorded.^[2]
• 1150–1170 – Middle High German nützen appears in Lamprecht's Alexander.^[9]
• 15th century – abnutzen “to wear out by use” is recorded.^[2]
• End of the 15th century – ausnutzen “to take advantage of” is recorded.^[2]
• 18th century – Adelung finds transitive nutzen commoner than nützen.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be of use, to help or bring an advantage; often negated or in questions: Der Schirm hat bei dem Sturm wenig genützt.^[13][1]
2. To use profitably, to exploit a resource: die Windkraft zur Stromerzeugung nutzen.^[13][1]
3. To make use of an opportunity, time or offer, to take advantage of it: Sie nutzte die Pause, um zu lesen.^[13][14]

Word family

• abnutzen
• ausnutzen
• benutzen
• Benutzer
• Nutzer
• Nutzung

Related words

• Nützlichkeit
• Nutzen
• nütze
• nützlich
• genießen
• Nichtsnutz

Usage notes

Today nutzen is the usual form in the north and nützen in the south.^[13] Wiktionary describes this as a hypercorrection: the verb was at first chiefly Upper and East Central German, and Low German and West Central German used other verbs, brauchen for the transitive and batten for the intransitive sense.^[1] Es nützt alles nichts (colloquial) means that one can put something off no longer.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 598
4. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 662
5. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ 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, 1029
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 243
8. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 124
9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
11. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 546
12. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
13. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
14. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org