privat

Forms

privat (strong nominative masculine singular privater, comparative privater, superlative am privatesten)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin prīvātus (“set apart (from the state), not public”), borrowed in the 16th century; the Latin word is the past participle of prīvō (“to deprive, free, set apart”), from prīvus (“single, one's own”).^[2][3][4] The same Latin word is in Privileg.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul records it from the middle of the 16th century in compounds such as Privatperson and Privatsache, with Privatschule from 1534.^[5][3] The Grimms quote Privatfeindschaften (1591) and privatanruffen (1561).^[6] It meant “of a single person, not holding an office, not public”.^[6][3]

Semantic evolution

Only in the 19th century did privat become common as an independent adjective.^[5] Privatdozent, a university teacher without a salaried post, goes back to privatim docentes in the Halle statutes of 1697 and became a title in the mid-18th century.^[5][3] Privateigentum appears at the end of the 18th century.^[3] The verb privatisieren first meant “to live on one's means as a private person” (1664, after French privatiser); “to transfer to private ownership” is a 20th-century sense.^[5][3] Hungarian borrowed privát in 1662.^[7]

Timeline

• 1534 – Privatschule is recorded.^[5]
• Mid-16th century – Privatperson and Privatsache come into use.^[3]
• 1664 – privatisieren “to live as a private person”.^[5]
• 1697 – the Halle statutes speak of privatim docentes.^[3]
• 19th century – privat is widely used on its own.^[5]
• 20th century – privatisieren comes to mean “to transfer to private ownership”.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Personal, concerning only oneself: ihre privaten Sorgen.^[8][9]
2. Informal, familiar: im privaten Kreis feiern.^[8][9]
3. Not official, not in one's working capacity: ein privater Anruf; adverbially privat unterwegs sein.^[8][9]
4. Not open to the public: ein privater Strand.^[8]
5. Not run or owned by the state: eine private Klinik.^[8][1]

Word family

• privatisieren
• Privatperson
• Privatsache
• Privatdozent
• Privateigentum
• Privatwirtschaft

Related words

• privatim
• Privileg

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 723
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 651
5. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 13, 2137
7. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
8. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das Fremdwörterbuch (2007), 9th ed., Duden vol. 5, Mannheim: Dudenverlag