Etymologically
Log in

offiziell

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 20 October 2026 at 18:01. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • /ˌɔfiˈtsjɛl/[1]

Forms

offiziell (strong nominative masculine singular offizieller, comparative offizieller, superlative am offiziellsten)[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French officiel (“official”), borrowed at the end of the 18th century.[2][3][4] The French word goes back to Late Latin officiālis (“belonging to duty or office”), from Latin officium (“duty, office”).[2][3][5] Kluge explains the Latin noun as “the doing of work”, from opus (“work”) and faciō (“to do”).[6]

Kluge and Pfeifer say that French took the adjective, in its political use, from English official.[6][2] The Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, however, notes that the English word in this sense is recorded only from the 1830s, later than the French and German words.[4] The Latin adjective appears directly in German only in compounds such as Offizialverteidiger.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Goethe's account of the 1792 campaign in France, which speaks of an officielle Erklärung of the French government about the assignats.[4][7] Lichtenberg wrote of die zuverlässige, officielle Nachricht in 1798.[4]

Semantic evolution

In the early 19th century it was common in politics and the press, for news from government sources, as in Görres (1819).[4] Börne remarked in 1823 that the philosophers and statesmen of his time had, like the French official paper, a small offiziell part and a very large unofficial one.[4] From “official” it came to mean “formal”, and its opposite inoffiziell was entered in the Duden of 1915.[7] Used as a noun, die Offiziellen are officials, for example the functionaries at a sports event.[5]

Timeline

  • 1792 – Goethe writes of an officielle Erklärung (published 1822).[4]
  • 1798 – Lichtenberg and Iffland use the word.[4]
  • 1823 – Börne contrasts the offiziell and unofficial parts of a life.[4]
  • 1915 – inoffiziell is entered in the Duden.[7]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. On official business, in an official capacity: der offizielle Besuch der Ministerin in Warschau.[5][1]
  2. Issued or confirmed by an authority and therefore reliable: eine offizielle Mitteilung des Ministeriums.[5][1]
  3. formal, ceremonious: ein offizieller Empfang im Rathaus.[5][8]

Word family

  • inoffiziell
  • offiziös
  • Offizier
  • Offizial
  • English official

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Schulz, Hans; Basler, Otto, et al. (1913–1988), Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, 7 vols., Strasbourg / Berlin: Trübner / De Gruyter; 2nd ed., ed. Gerhard Strauß et al. (1995–), Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; via OWID, Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
  5. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 666
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag