rot

Forms

rot (strong nominative masculine singular roter, comparative röter or roter, superlative am rötesten or am rotesten)^[1] The spelling roth, with a lengthening h, was usual until the late 19th century; the Grimms' dictionary notes that the historical rot was then coming back.^[2] The comparative is röter, less often roter.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German rōt, inherited from Old High German rōt, inherited from Proto-Germanic *raudaz (“red”).^[4][5][6] The same adjective is Gothic 𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃 (rauþs), Old Norse rauðr, Old English rēad, Old Frisian rād and Old Saxon rōd, and it lives on in Dutch rood, English red and Swedish röd.^[4][5][6]

Kroonen takes the Germanic adjective as an o-grade formation, Proto-Indo-European *h₁rowdʰós, from the root Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”).^[6][1] Kluge notes that the family shows strong ablaut both in Germanic and outside it: on the same grade stand, or may stand, Latin rūfus (“reddish”), Old Irish rúad, Lithuanian raũdas (“reddish brown”) the dialectal Russian рудой (rudój, “blood-red”).^[4][5] Other grades appear in Ancient Greek ἐρυθρός (eruthrós, “red”) and Sanskrit रुधिर (rudhirá, “red, bloody”), and the ordinary Latin word for the colour, ruber, is an ablaut variant as well.^[4][5][7] Pfeifer calls it probably the oldest and most widespread colour word of the Indo-European languages.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German rōt is recorded from the 8th century, in glosses and in Tatian, Otfrid, Notker, the Murbach Hymns and Williram, meaning “red”.^[5][8] In Middle High German rōt could also mean “false, cunning”, and was used of red hair.^[5][1]

Semantic evolution

Paul notes that, as with other colour words, the sense was at first less sharply bounded than today: fire, gold and copper were called red (hence keinen roten Heller “not a red farthing” and Rotgießer “coppersmith”), and so is hair that is not really red.^[9] Red wine and blood are among the oldest uses in the Grimms' quotations.^[2]

In politics red was first the colour of war, after the colour of blood, and then of revolutionary and radical opinion;^[9] Paul quotes Freiligrath's line und uns're fahn ist roth! (“and our flag is red!”).^[9] The Duden dictionary explains the sense “left-wing, socialist, communist” by the red flag of the labour movement.^[3] In the GDR rote Socke was a mocking name for a loyal party member, and Rot-Grün, the coalition of the SPD and the Greens, was the word of the year 1998.^[9]

Turning red with embarrassment, rot werden, is recorded from late Middle High German, in Konrad von Megenberg, and erröten from the 16th century.^[9] The phrase ein rotes Tuch comes from the cloth used to provoke the bull in a bullfight and is recorded only in modern times (Bismarck).^[9] The Hungarian word rőt (“reddish (of hair)”), recorded in 1350, is listed as a borrowing from German.^[10]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German rōt is first recorded.^[5][4]
• 1350 – Hungarian rőt, a German loan, is first recorded.^[10]
• Late Middle High German – Konrad von Megenberg uses rot werden of blushing.^[9]
• 16th century – The verb erröten “to blush” appears; the plural Röteln (German measles) dates from the second half of the century.^[9][5]
• 1998 – Rot-Grün, for the coalition of the SPD and the Greens, is word of the year.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Red, of the colour of blood: ein roter Schal “a red scarf”, roter Wein “red wine”.^[3][1]
2. Red in the face from shame or embarrassment, in rot werden “to blush”.^[3]
3. (politics) Belonging to the left: communist, socialist or social democratic; in Germany especially of the SPD or the Left party.^[3][1]
4. (sometimes offensive) Red-haired.^[1]

Word family

• Rot
• Röte
• röten
• erröten
• Rötel
• Röteln
• rötlich
• Rotauge
• Rotkehlchen
• Rotwild
• Rotwein

Related words

• Rost²
• Rubin
• Rubrik
• English red

Usage notes

Rot sehen is “to see red, become furious”, and ein rotes Tuch für jemanden sein is to be something that infuriates a person.^[9] The proverb heute rot, morgen tot (“red today, dead tomorrow”) says that death can come suddenly, probably with reference to rosy cheeks.^[3] Rot (neuter) is the noun “red, the colour red”, also the suit of hearts in the German pack of cards.^[3][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 1287
3. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 773
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 702
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 264
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de