paar

Forms

paar (invariable)^[1]

Etymology

It comes from the noun Paar, “pair”, used loosely for a small number.^[2][3][1] That noun is Middle High German pār, taken after the High German consonant shift from Latin pār (“equal; as a noun, companion, pair”).^[4][2] Kluge describes the change from “two” to “some” as a generalization of the meaning.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul and Pfeifer date the loose use for a small number, and before numbers “a little more than”, to the 16th century.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Paul shows how ein paar Ochsen “a few oxen” drew away from ein Paar Ochsen “a pair of oxen”: the word came to behave like an uninflected adjective, the verb went into the plural, the case ending moved to the noun (mit ein paar Ochsen beside mit einem Paar Ochsen), and the definite article could precede it, as in Immermann's die paar Groschen Verdienst “the few pennies earned”.^[3] The small initial letter marks this use in writing.^[3][2] Goethe once even inflected the word standing alone, unter ein paaren.^[3]

Timeline

• 13th century – The noun Paar is borrowed from Latin.^[4]
• 16th century – ein paar is used for “a few”.^[3][2]

Meanings

Indefinite pronoun

1. ein paar: a few, some: ein paar Äpfel, in ein paar Wochen;^[5][1] (colloquial) ein paar kriegen “to get a few slaps”.^[5][1]
2. With the definite article or a pronoun: the few, not many: Mit den paar Euro komme ich nicht weit.^[5]
3. (regional) Without ein: nach paar Tagen.^[5]

Related words

• Paar
• paaren

Usage notes

Adelung records an adjective paar “even (of a number)” and “matching”, used in common speech and in Upper German, with the children's game paar oder unpaar “odd or even”.^[6] Wiktionary also lists paar as an obsolete spelling of bar “bare; cash”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 677
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 631