Etymologically
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schauen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃaʊ̯ən/[1]

Forms

schauen (third-person singular present schaut, past tense schaute, past participle geschaut, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German schouwen, inherited from Old High German scouwōn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *skawwōną (“to look”).[2][1][3] The same West Germanic verb is Old Saxon skawon, Old Frisian skāwia and Old English scēawian, the source of the English verb show, whose meaning changed to “to make seen”.[2][4][5] Ablaut forms with a Norse development are Old Norse skygn (“sharp-sighted”) and skygna (“to spy”).[4][6]

Outside Germanic, Kluge and Pfeifer compare Ancient Greek θυοσκόος (thuoskóos, “sacrificial seer”), and without the initial /s/, κοέω (koéō, “I perceive”) and Latin caveō (“to beware”).[2][4][7] The root is an s-variant of Proto-Indo-European *(s)kewh₁- (“to heed, look”), which is also behind hören.[4][1][6] The adjective schön, originally “worth seeing”, belongs to the same root.[6][4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German scouwōn is first recorded in glosses of about 765, and then in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram; it meant to see, look at, behold and consider, also to search out and to take heed, and reflexively with the genitive, to be on one's guard.[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Duden notes that schauen, unlike sehen, usually means deliberate looking and watching, and that in elevated style it also means inner, spiritual seeing.[6] Luther wrote schawet die Lilien auff dem felde (Matthew 6:28) and used the verb for beholding God.[9] Mystical prose of the Middle Ages made the verbal noun schouwen a word for contemplation, and beschaulich leben rendered the Latin vita contemplativa.[10][6]

Adelung already called it a word at home in Upper German.[11] It is now chiefly southern German, Austrian and Swiss in everyday use, where the north says gucken or sehen, and otherwise belongs to elevated language.[9][12] Bavarian and Austrian dialects have had the form schaugen since the 16th century.[5] The noun Schau came under the influence of English show in the 20th century, as in Modenschau.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German scouwōn in glosses.[3]
  • 1060–1065 – Middle High German schouwen in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs.[10]
  • Late 15th century – Schauspiel is first recorded.[4]
  • 16th century – zuschauen and Zuschauer appear.[4]
  • 1534 – Luther's Bible: schawet die Lilien auff dem felde.[9]
  • 19th century – Schaufenster “shop window” is formed.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (chiefly southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland) To look, to direct one's eyes somewhere: Sie schaute aus dem Fenster.[12][1]
  2. (chiefly southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland) To look in a certain way, to have a certain expression: Er schaute ganz verdutzt.[12]
  3. (elevated) To perceive with the mind's eye, to behold intuitively.[12]
  4. (southern Germany, Austria) To watch or look at, as a film or television: Wir haben gestern einen Krimi geschaut.[12][1]
  5. (southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland) To look after, take care of: nach den Kindern schauen; also to see to it that something happens.[12][1]

Word family

  • Schauer
  • anschauen
  • zuschauen
  • Beschauer
  • beschaulich
  • abschauen
  • aufschauen
  • ausschauen
  • durchschauen
  • herausschauen
  • hinschauen
  • Schauspiel
  • Schaufenster
  • Zuschauer
  • beschauen
  • Anschauung

Usage notes

Schau, schau! expresses surprise.[12][9] Jemandem ähnlich schauen is to look like someone, and colloquially das schaut ihm ähnlich means that is typical of him.[12]

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. 797
  3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ 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, 2310
  6. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2014), 5th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin / Mannheim / Zürich: Dudenverlag, p. 729
  7. ^ a b Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 292
  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 Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 3, 1380
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag