schätzen

Forms

schätzen (third-person singular present schätzt, past tense schätzte, past participle geschätzt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German schetzen (“to tax; to assess the value of”), a verb formed from schaz (“money, treasure, tax”) (Schatz).^[2][3][4] Middle High German also had schatzen, continuing Old High German scazzōn (“to gather treasure”), which developed the sense “to assess a fortune, tax”.^[4][5] Adelung held that the verb does not come directly from the noun but is a collateral relative of it.^[6]

The noun is Old High German scaz (“coin, money, wealth”), from Proto-Germanic *skattaz (“property, cattle”), also in Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐍄𐍄𐍃 (skatts, “coin, money”), Old Norse skattr (“tribute, wealth”), Old English sceatt and Old Frisian sket (“money, cattle”).^[2][7] Its origin is unclear, and Kluge does not exclude a loan from an unknown language.^[2][3] Pfeifer takes “cattle” as the oldest sense, as with Latin pecū (“cattle”) beside pecūnia (“money”), and Old Church Slavonic скотъ (skotŭ, “cattle”) is probably a loan from Germanic.^[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German schetzen meant “to take money from, tax, impose a ransom on” and also “to value by worth or number”, “to consider, believe”.^[5][8][3]

Semantic evolution

Of the two Middle High German senses, “to assess a value” and “to tax”, schätzen kept only the first, while taxing went to schatzen, now only in brandschatzen.^[4] From “to assess” came “to judge” (gering schätzen) and “to suppose”, and especially “to hold in high esteem”.^[4][3] Luther's Bible still uses it for a census, dass alle Welt geschätzt würde (Luke 2:1), and for “consider, regard” (2 Corinthians 10:2), a use Adelung already found obsolete.^[9][6] Schätzung continues Middle High German schetzunge “taxation”, and schätzbar and unschätzbar appear in the 17th century.^[3]

Hungarian borrowed it as saccol (“to estimate; to think”) (1835), and Czech šacovat means “to extort a ransom”.^[10]

Timeline

• Middle High German – schetzen “to tax; to value”.^[5]
• 16th century – unschätzbar “very precious”.^[3]
• 17th century – schätzbar and unschätzbar “not appraisable”.^[3]
• 1793 – Adelung calls the sense “consider, regard” obsolete.^[6]
• 1835 – Hungarian saccol is first recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To estimate approximately, without exact measurement: Ich schätze die Entfernung auf zwei Kilometer.^[9][1]
2. To appraise, value: ein Haus schätzen lassen.^[9][1]
3. (colloquial) To suppose, reckon: Ich schätze, sie kommt morgen.^[9][1]
4. To think highly of someone; to value something, appreciate it: Sie schätzt seine Offenheit.^[9][1]

Word family

• abschätzen
• einschätzen
• überschätzen
• unterschätzen
• verschätzen
• geringschätzen
• wertschätzen
• Schätzung
• Schätzwert
• unschätzbar

Related words

• Schatz
• brandschatzen

Usage notes

Sich glücklich schätzen is “to consider oneself lucky”, and etwas zu schätzen wissen “to appreciate something”.^[9][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 796
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 673
6. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 1375
7. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de