reagieren
Pronunciation
- /ʁeaˈɡiːʁən/, [ʁeaˈɡiːɐ̯n][1]
Forms
reagieren (third-person singular present reagiert, past tense reagierte, past participle reagiert, auxiliary haben)[1]
Etymology
It is borrowed from Late Latin reagō (“to drive back”), which meant “to act against” in the Middle Ages, and was taken into the language of chemistry in the 18th century.[2][3][1] The Latin verb is formed from re- (“back”) and agō (“to drive, act, do”) (see agieren).[2][4] Kluge and the Duden Herkunftswörterbuch describe it instead as a learned new formation in German from the Latin elements.[5][6] The same verb is Dutch reageren, English react, French réagir and Swedish reagera.[5]
Earliest recorded meaning
The verb is first found in the chemical language of the 18th century, meaning “to undergo, cause or show a chemical change”.[3][2][7] The earliest quotation in the Deutsches Fremdwörterbuch, from a medical text of 1795, already uses it of organs that “react together” when another organ is irritated.[3]
Semantic evolution
Toward the end of the 18th century the word passed from chemistry into medicine and biology, of living organisms that respond to a stimulus.[2][3] Paul dates this to 1795.[7] In the early 19th century it came into general use, at first mostly with gegen, meaning “to work against, oppose” (Das Herz reagierte gegen den Skeptizismus, 1836); today it usually takes auf and means to respond to something, mostly of people, and colloquially sauer reagieren is to react with annoyance.[3][7]
abreagieren, to work off pent-up feelings, appeared at the end of the 19th century;[2][7] Paul's first record is from 1912.[2][7] Reagens “a reagent” dates from the second half of the 18th century and Reagenz from the middle of the 19th.[2] The noun Reaktion was formed in the later 18th century under French influence, and around 1820 it became a political catchword for the forces opposed to progress.[7][6] Reaktor was taken over from American English in the middle of the 20th century.[2]
Timeline
- 18th century – reagieren is used in chemistry.[2][3]
- 1795 – First record in medicine, of organs responding to a stimulus.[3][7]
- 1836 – First record of the general sense “to work against”.[7][3]
- Second half of the 18th century – Reagens appears.[2]
- 1912 – First record of abreagieren.[7]
- Mid-20th century – Reaktor is borrowed from American English.[2]
Meanings
Verb
- To react, to respond (to a stimulus, an event, a remark), usually with auf: Der Hund reagiert nicht auf seinen Namen.[8][1]
- (chemistry) To undergo a chemical reaction, to act on another substance: Natrium reagiert heftig mit Wasser.[8][9]
Word family
- Reagens
- Reagenz
- abreagieren
- Reaktion
Related words
- agieren
- Reaktor
- reaktionär
- English react
References
- ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
- ^ a b c d e f g h 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
- ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
- ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 750
- ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 677
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
- ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
- ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org