rein

Forms

rein (strong nominative masculine singular reiner, comparative reiner, superlative am reinsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German reine, inherited from Old High German reini, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hrainī, inherited from Proto-Germanic *hrainiz (“clean, pure”).^[2][1][3] The same adjective is Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (hrains), Old Norse hreinn, Old Saxon hrēni and Old Frisian hrēne, continued in Dutch rein and Swedish ren.^[2][4][3] It is missing in Old English, where clǣne (English clean) took over its meaning.^[5][6]

Its original sense was “sifted, cleaned”.^[2][6][7] It belongs to Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to separate, sift”), found in Ancient Greek κρίνω (krī́nō, “to separate, decide”) and Latin cernō (“to sift, distinguish”).^[2][4][1] Related above all are the words for “sieve”: crībrum, Old Irish críathar, and the regional German Reiter (Old High German rītara), with Old English hriddel.^[2][4][7] Pfeifer and the Duden take this root as a form of Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to cut”), the root of scheren, and the Duden calls the adjective an old participle.^[4][7] Kroonen explains it as an adjective, perhaps with lengthened grade, formed to a nasal present that Germanic has not kept, the type of the Latin and Greek verbs.^[3] Swiss dialects keep an old sense “fine”, of flour, sugar or sand, as does Rhenish Franconian.^[3][4] Wiktionary also notes another explanation, from *ḱreyH- (“to show oneself, noble”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German reini is recorded from the Benedictine Rule of the last quarter of the 8th century, and then in the Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[8][9][10] It meant “clean, pure, clear, chaste, spotless, holy, innocent”, and also “fine” of flour: reinaz melo glosses Latin simila “fine wheat flour”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Paul distinguishes two main senses.^[6] The first, “free of dirt”, the opposite of “soiled”, was originally not usual in Upper German, which said sauber; in the Bible rein is also “free of skin disease” and of animals “fit for sacrifice”, and more widely “virgin, free of sin”.^[6] The second is “unmixed”: pure gold, wine or wool, a pure colour or pronunciation, Kant's reine Vernunft “pure reason”, and reine Mathematik (1764) as opposed to applied mathematics.^[6] As an adverb it came to mean “merely” and “downright” (rein unmöglich, Schiller), and reinweg “downright” came from Low German about 1900.^[6]

Reinheit (1620) replaced older Reinigkeit, and reinigen replaced older reinen.^[6][7] In Reingewinn (1876) rein renders netto, and Reinkultur (about 1880) was first a pure culture of bacteria, then anything typical in its purest form.^[6] Czech borrowed rajn “purely, quite”.^[11]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German reini appears in the Benedictine Rule.^[8]
• 1620 – First record of Reineheit “purity”.^[6]
• 1764 – Reine Mathematik is set against applied mathematics.^[6]
• 1876 – Reingewinn “net profit” is recorded.^[6]
• c. 1880 – Reinkultur “pure culture” appears.^[6]
• c. 1900 – Reinweg comes into general use from Low German.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Pure, unmixed, without anything added or foreign: reines Olivenöl; of language, free of errors or accent: Er spricht ein reines Französisch.^[12][1]
2. Nothing but, mere: Das war reine Neugier.^[12]
3. Consisting entirely of what is named, without exception: eine reine Wohngegend.^[12]
4. (colloquial, intensifying) Utter, sheer, or so like the thing named that it could be taken for it: Das ist ja das reinste Chaos!^[12]
5. Spotlessly clean: ein reines Handtuch;^[12][13] ein reines Gewissen “a clear conscience”.^[12][13]
6. (Judaism) Kosher.^[12]

Adverb

1. Purely, exclusively: aus rein beruflichen Gründen.^[12][1]
2. Gives emphasis to a reason or respect: Das schaffe ich rein zeitlich nicht.^[12]
3. (colloquial) Completely, utterly: rein gar nichts.^[12][6]

Word family

• Reinheit
• reinlich
• reinigen
• Reinigung
• unrein
• Reingewinn
• Reinkultur
• reinweg

Related words

• scheren
• Old High German reini

Usage notes

Fixed phrases are etwas ins Reine schreiben “to make a fair copy”, etwas ins Reine bringen “to clear something up”, mit jemandem ins Reine kommen “to settle one's differences with someone” and mit sich im Reinen sein “to be at peace with oneself”.^[12][6] A separate colloquial adverb rein is a shortening of herein or hinein “in”, via erein, and was already used by Luther and Hans Sachs; northern German also says rin.^[14][15][1] The field boundary Rain was spelt rein until the spelling with ai won through in the 18th century to keep it apart from the adjective.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 756
3. ^ a b c d Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
4. ^ 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
5. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 680
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
7. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 689
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 344
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 257
11. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duden. Deutsches Universalwörterbuch (2007), 6th ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
14. ^ Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
15. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 679
16. ^ Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 337