Etymologically
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privat

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Pronunciation

  • /pʁiˈvaːt/[1]

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
  • 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