sammeln

Forms

sammeln (third-person singular present sammelt, past tense sammelte, past participle gesammelt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German samelen, a late Middle High German form that arose by dissimilation of /n/ to /l/ from the older samenen, inherited from Old High German samanōn (“to gather, unite”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *samnōną (“to bring together”).^[2][3][4][1] Middle Low German sāmelen and Dutch zamelen went through the same change.^[3][4] The older verb is also Old Saxon samnon, Old English samnian and Old Norse samna.^[2][3]

It is a factitive verb “to make together” from the adverb Proto-Germanic *samana (“together”), seen in Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰 (samana), saman and saman, which survives in zusammen.^[2][3] The adverb belongs with the pronoun Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰 (sama, “same”) and samo (“the same”), and the family goes back to Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one; together”).^[3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German samanōn is first found in the Isidor translation at the end of the 8th century, then in Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “to gather, assemble, unite, heap up”, also “to add up” and “to bring in a harvest”.^[5][6] Kluge dates the verb to the 9th century and the noun Sammlung (Old High German samanunga) to the 8th.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The dissimilated form samelen appears late in Middle High German, in 14th-century chronicles, beside the usual samenen;^[2][7] Kluge dates it to the 14th century, and by Maaler (1561) only samlen was left.^[2][7] In Luther's Bible the verb is used of gathering stones, weeds and wheat, and of gathering people, where later German prefers versammeln.^[7][8]

Collecting things for their value or rarity is recorded by Adelung in 1777 (seltene Bücher sammeln), and the participle gesammelt became usual in the titles of collected works.^[9] Geld sammeln was at first a polite word for begging.^[9] With abstract objects it means to gather strength or knowledge, and reflexive sich sammeln came to mean “to compose oneself, concentrate”; the noun Sammler “collector” dates from the 16th century.^[9][3]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German samanōn in the Isidor translation.^[5]
• 8th century – Old High German samanunga “collection, assembly”.^[2][3]
• 14th century – The dissimilated form samelen appears.^[2][7]
• 16th century – First record of Sammler.^[3]
• 1777 – Adelung records seltene Bücher sammeln, collecting as a pursuit.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gather things one finds into a larger amount, to use them: berries, mushrooms, firewood; figuratively, material or experience.^[10][1]
2. To collect things one is interested in and keep them: stamps, coins, paintings;^[10][11] gesammelte Werke, collected works.^[10][11]
3. To collect money, signatures or goods from many people; intransitively, to take up a collection.^[10][1]
4. To bring people together in one place; reflexive sich sammeln, to assemble, or of water, light and the like, to collect, accumulate.^[10][1]
5. (reflexive) To compose oneself, to concentrate: sich vor der Prüfung sammeln.^[10][11]

Word family

• Sammler
• Sammlung
• ansammeln
• einsammeln
• versammeln
• Versammlung
• Sammelsurium

Related words

• zusammen
• gesamt
• samt
• -sam

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 785
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 c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 713
5. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 271
7. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 1741
8. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
9. ^ a b c d 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 c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org