scheitern

Forms

scheitern (third-person singular present scheitert, past tense scheiterte, past participle gescheitert, auxiliary sein)^[1]

Etymology

It is a verb formed from Scheiter (“logs”), an older plural of Scheit “log, split piece of wood”.^[2][3][4] Its literal meaning was “to break into pieces”, said of vehicles and above all of ships that were smashed.^[2][3] Kluge derives it from an older phrase “to become logs”, Pfeifer from phrases meaning “to go to pieces, break up into wreckage”.^[2][3] It was preceded in the 16th century by zerscheitern and zuscheitern.^[3][5]

The noun is Middle High German schīt, Old High German scīt, Proto-Germanic *skīdą (“piece of wood”), literally “something split”, from the root of scheiden.^[2][3][1] The same word is Old Norse skíð (“billet; ski”), Old English scīd (English dialect shide) and Old Frisian skīd.^[2][3] Beside the old plural with ⟨-e⟩, Middle High German formed a new plural schīter on the pattern of nouns in ⟨-er⟩, and the verb was built on it.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Luther uses zerscheitern in his Bible in the sense “to smash”, already figuratively: ich wil deine rosse und reuter zerscheitern (Jeremiah 51:21).^[5] Hans Sachs, in an edition of 1570, writes of a raft that zerscheittert on a rock near Grein.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The simple verb appears in the 16th and 17th centuries; its use for shipwreck is recorded from the 17th century.^[2][3] Gryphius writes wie wenn ein schiff sich scheitert an den klippen, still reflexive.^[5] Adelung gives the meaning “to break into pieces”, most often of ships, and already the figurative der Anschlag ist gescheitert “the plan has failed”.^[6]

The figurative sense “to fail” has since become the main one, and the literal sense of ships is now dated.^[4] In southern German dialects scheitern could also mean “to split wood into logs”.^[5][6] Compare Scheiterhaufen “pyre”, recorded from the 16th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 16th century – zerscheitern, zuscheitern “to break into pieces”, and the first scheitern.^[3][2]
• 1570 – Hans Sachs uses zerscheittert of a raft.^[5]
• 1592 – holtz scheittern “to split wood”.^[5]
• 17th century – scheitern of shipwreck.^[3][4]
• c. 1800 – Adelung records the figurative sense “to fail”.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fail, not to reach one's goal: Sie ist mit ihrer Klage vor Gericht gescheitert.^[4][1]
2. (of a plan, effort) To fail, come to nothing, founder: Die Gespräche scheiterten am Streit ums Geld.^[4][1]
3. (dated) (of a ship) To be wrecked, run aground: Das Boot scheiterte an einem Riff.^[4]

Word family

• Scheitern
• gescheitert

Related words

• Scheit
• Scheiterhaufen
• scheiden

Usage notes

The verb takes sein in the perfect.^[4][1] Eine gescheiterte Existenz is a person who has failed in life, and something zum Scheitern verurteilt is doomed to fail.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 799
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 14, 2482
6. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf