rufen

Forms

rufen (class 7 strong, third-person singular present ruft, past tense rief, past participle gerufen, auxiliary haben)^[1] It was a reduplicating strong verb, whence the preterite rief.^[2][3] Weak forms were also used: rufte was still common in the 18th century, in Klopstock, Goethe, Schiller and Voss.^[2] The present has no umlaut (er ruft, formerly also rüft), as is regular in Upper German before a labial.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ruofen, inherited from Old High German (h)ruofan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hrōpan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *hrōpaną (“to cry out, call”).^[4][3][1] The strong verb is also Old Saxon hrōpan, Old English hrōpan and Old Frisian hrōpa, continued in Dutch roepen;^[4][3] Gothic and Old Norse have it only in the nouns Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐍉𐍀𐍃 (hrōps, “cry”) and Old Norse hróp (“slander”).^[4][3] Beside it stood a weak verb, Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (hrōpjan, “to cry out”), hrœpa, Old High German ruofen and Middle High German rüefen, continued in Swedish ropa.^[4][3]

Kluge finds no comparable word outside Germanic and suggests a connection with Ruhm.^[4] Pfeifer and Duden think it is probably imitative, from an extended form of a sound root Proto-Indo-European *kar- (“to praise loudly”), which would also give Ancient Greek κῆρυξ (kḗrux, “herald”).^[3][5] Köbler connects it with a root for croaking and crowing.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German ruofan is recorded from the end of the 8th century, in Isidor and the glosses, and then in the Monsee fragments, the Tatian and Otfrid, with the senses “to call out, cry, call upon, speak, say, pray”.^[7][6][8] The EWA notes that in the literary texts the strong verb is found only in Franconian, while Upper German has only the weak ruofen.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Middle High German rüefen could also mean “to summon to a court hearing” and “to proclaim”.^[9] Paul distinguishes raising the voice, also of animals (der Kuckuck ruft), from calling someone to come; in the second use the person called was originally in the dative, still common in the 18th century (Goethe's Wer ruft mir? in Faust), but the accusative has since replaced it.^[2] The dative survives in colloquial Swiss and southwestern German.^[10]

Luther's zu Gott rufen “to call upon God” is followed in religious language.^[2] The sense “to telephone” is recorded in 1925, and is now usually expressed by anrufen.^[2] In Swiss usage rufen can also mean “to cause, bring about”.^[10]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German ruofan in Isidor.^[6][7]
• c. 830 – The strong verb in the Tatian.^[6]
• 18th century – The weak preterite rufte is still in literary use.^[2]
• 1925 – Sense “to telephone”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To call out, shout; of birds and animals, to cry or call.^[10][1]
2. (reflexive) To get into a state by shouting: sich heiser rufen.^[10]
3. To shout, call out (words): „Halt!“, rief der Wächter.^[10][1]
4. To call for (with nach): nach dem Kellner rufen.^[10][1]
5. To call, summon someone where they are needed: einen Krankenwagen rufen.^[10][1]
6. To call to, summon to (with zu): zur Ordnung rufen.^[10]
7. (dated) To call by a certain name.^[10][1]
8. To call up, contact by telephone or radio.^[10]
9. (Switzerland) To cause, bring about.^[10]

Word family

• berufen
• widerrufen
• verrufen
• abrufen
• anrufen
• aufrufen
• ausrufen
• hervorrufen
• wachrufen
• zurückrufen

Related words

• Ruf
• Gerücht
• berüchtigt
• anrüchig
• ruchbar
• Ruhm

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f 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 c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 776
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 267
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag