Etymologically
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offenbar

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈɔfn̩baːɐ̯/, /ɔfn̩ˈbaːɐ̯/[1]

Forms

offenbar (strong nominative masculine singular offenbarer, comparative offenbarer, superlative am offenbarsten)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German offenbære, inherited from Old High German offanbāri (“evident, manifest”), a derivative of offen in the sense “standing before one's eyes”, in which -bāri served only as a suffix from the start.[2][3] The same formation is Middle Low German ōpenbār and Middle Dutch openbare.[2][3] Adelung and the Grimms' dictionary saw the suffix as a mere strengthening of the adjective.[4][5]

The adjective is offan, from Proto-Germanic *upanaz (“open”), formed with an n-suffix and ablaut from the base of auf; it is also Old Norse opinn, Old English open and Old Saxon opan.[2][6] Pfeifer explains it as perhaps “drawn or lifted up”, hence “open”.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German offanbāri is found from the 10th century in glosses and in Notker's circle, meaning “evident, visible, public”, for Latin manifestus and evidens.[3] Middle High German offenbære, offenbār meant open, opened, clear, visible and public.[7][3]

Semantic evolution

Until the 18th century offenbar could still mean simply “open” and “public”: of eyes and mouth in Middle German, of the open sea (die offenbare See, still in Schiller and Zelter), and of public inns, notaries and sinners in 15th- and 16th-century texts.[5][4][8] Adelung (1798) knew offenbar “open” only in die offenbare See and held the sense “known”, as in Luther's Bible, to be largely obsolete.[4]

The adverb meant “openly, before everyone” in Luther's Bible (Mark 8:32), while since the 18th century Lessing, Kant and Schiller used it for “clearly, evidently”.[9] In the 20th century it also came to mean “apparently”, as it seems.[8] The verb offenbaren and the noun Offenbarung go back to Middle High German; the old sense survives in Offenbarungseid (1800), the oath by which a debtor declares insolvency.[7][8]

Timeline

  • 10th century – Old High German offanbāri appears in glosses.[2][3]
  • 1478 – A Nuremberg police ordinance speaks of offenbar inns and cooks, that is, public ones.[5]
  • 16th century – Luther uses the adverb for “openly”.[9]
  • 18th century – The adverb means “evidently” in Lessing and Kant.[9]
  • 1800 – First record of Offenbarungseid.[8]
  • 20th century – The adverb also means “apparently”.[8]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. obvious, evident, plain to see: eine offenbare Täuschung.[10][1]

Adverb

  1. apparently, seemingly, as it appears: Der Laden ist offenbar schon geschlossen.[10][1]

Word family

  • offenbaren
  • Offenbarung

Usage notes

The word is usually stressed on the first syllable, but it may also be stressed on the second;[10][4] Adelung already noted the stress on -bar in emphatic speech.[10][4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 666
  3. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 6, 1134
  4. ^ a b c d e Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  5. ^ 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, 1172
  6. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ 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, 1173
  10. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag