sein

sein¹ his, its

Pronunciation

• Germany: /zaɪ̯n/^[1]
• Austria, Southern Germany, Switzerland: [saɛ̯n]^[1]

Forms

sein (masculine and neuter), seine (feminine and plural); before a noun the masculine and neuter nominative are uninflected, while the word standing alone takes the endings.^[2][1]

Etymology

The possessive is inherited from Middle High German sīn, inherited from Old High German sīn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sīn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *sīnaz (“his own, one's own”).^[3][1] The same word is Gothic 𐍃𐌴𐌹𐌽𐍃 (seins), Old Norse sinn, Old English sīn, Old Frisian sīn and Old Saxon sīn, and in the modern languages Dutch zijn and Swedish sin.^[3][4]

Kluge explains it as an adjective of belonging with the suffix Proto-Indo-European *-no-, starting from a locative in *-nē of the originally enclitic pronoun stem *sei, which is also found in Hittite -ši.^[3] Kroonen derives it from the reflexive base *se-, which also gave sich;^[4] mein and dein are formed in the same way from the stems of the first and second person.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sīn “his, its” is recorded from the 8th century, in texts from the Hildebrandslied, the Benedictine Rule and the Georgslied to Notker and Otfrid;^[3][5] Schützeichel gives the phrase durch sīnen willon “for his sake”.^[3][5] Köbler counts over 4,000 instances.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle High German the uninflected possessive was identical with the genitive of the personal pronoun.^[2] Until Early New High German sein selbes or sein selbst meant “of himself” (Luther: sein selbst Werk “his own work”); this has been replaced by sein eigen.^[2] Colloquially the possessive also marks a considerable amount where it is not strictly needed: er hat seine 70 Jahre auf dem Rücken “he has a good seventy years behind him”, or Schiller's seine acht Schuh breit.^[2] Used predicatively, das Buch ist mein is now regional.^[2]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German sīn is recorded.^[3]
• 16th century – Luther writes sein selbst Werk “his own work”.^[2]
• 1780 – Adelung records the phrase es hat seine Richtigkeit damit “that is quite in order”.^[2]

Meanings

Determiner

1. his: belonging to a male person named before.^[7][1]
2. its: belonging to a thing of masculine or neuter gender.^[7][1]
3. one's (referring to man).^[1]
4. (informal) Before a number, marking an approximate, considerable amount: seine 70 Jahre.^[1][2]

Word family

• seinetwegen
• seinesgleichen
• seinerseits

sein² to be

Pronunciation

• Germany: /zaɪ̯n/^[1]
• Austria, Southern Germany, Switzerland: [saɛ̯n]^[1]

Forms

sein (irregular, third-person singular present ist, past tense war, past participle gewesen, past subjunctive wäre, auxiliary sein)^[1] Wiktionary lists the older spelling seyn, which the Grimms' dictionary quotes from Goethe, Schelling and Hegel.^[1][8]

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle High German sīn, inherited from Old High German sīn, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sīn.^[3][1] In all the Germanic languages its forms come from three Indo-European roots.^[9][10][11]

The present forms ⟨ist⟩, ⟨sind⟩, ⟨seid⟩ and the subjunctive ⟨sei⟩ go back to Proto-Indo-European *es- (“to be”): Old High German ist, Gothic 𐌹𐍃𐍄 (ist) and Old English is match Latin est, Ancient Greek ἐστί (estí) and Sanskrit अस्ति (ásti), and sint, 𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌳 (sind) match sunt and सन्ति (sánti).^[9][10][3] The infinitive, the present participle and the plural imperative are German new formations from this stem;^[3][10] Kluge explains the infinitive from the 1st and 2nd person plural of the present, which originally had no root vowel and were remodelled after the 3rd person plural and the optative, whereas the other Germanic languages took their infinitive from the verb of Wesen.^[3][10] Kluge adds that an older sense is probably kept in आस्ते (ā́ste, “sits”).^[3]

The 1st and 2nd person singular, Old High German bim, bist, are mixed forms: they continue *h₁es- (as in 𐌹𐌼 (im), English am and εἰμί (eimí)) with the ⟨b⟩ of the West Germanic forms from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeu- (“to grow, become, be”), the root of be and Latin fuī (“I have been”) (see bauen).^[9][10][12] In Middle High German the old forms with ⟨b⟩ other than these were replaced by forms with ⟨s⟩, as Old High German birum “we are” by ⟨sint⟩.^[9]

The preterite ⟨war⟩, ⟨waren⟩ and the participle ⟨gewesen⟩, a Middle High German new formation, belong to the strong verb Old High German wesan (“to be, remain, stay”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐍃𐌰𐌽 (wisan), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to stay, dwell”).^[9][10][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sīn is recorded from the 8th century;^[3][5] Schützeichel's senses include “be, become, happen, exist, be present, stay, remain, live” and its use as an auxiliary.^[3][5] Köbler counts more than 1,750 instances and lists among the sources a runic inscription on a buckle frame from Weimar, of the first half of the 6th century.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Pfeifer distinguishes three main uses: the verb of existence (“to be there, exist”), the copula linking the subject with a predicate (er ist gesund) and the auxiliary of the perfect tenses (er ist gegangen).^[9] The noun Sein, the infinitive used as a noun, became common only in New High German; in Middle High German sein and wesen were still used alike, but in New High German Wesen came to mean the essential nature of a thing and Sein the fact or manner of its existence.^[10][8] The pair became important to the philosophers after Kant, Schelling and Hegel, and Shakespeare's line was rendered Seyn oder Nichtseyn, das ist hier die Frage.^[8] English borrowed the compound Dasein in 1846.^[13]

Timeline

• 6th century – Köbler lists a runic inscription from Weimar among the sources of sīn.^[6]
• 8th century – Old High German sīn is recorded.^[3]
• 9th century – The infinitive sīn appears beside the older wesan.^[9]
• 1846 – English borrows Dasein.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be: links the subject with an adjective or noun that describes or identifies it.^[11][1]
2. (impersonal, with es) Of time, weather and conditions: es ist kalt “it is cold”.^[11][1]
3. To exist; to be present, be somewhere.^[11][7][1]
4. To belong to someone: das ist meins “that is mine”.^[11]
5. (impersonal, with dative) Of a feeling: mir ist kalt “I am cold”.^[11][1]
6. (auxiliary) Forms the perfect and pluperfect of many intransitive verbs, especially verbs of motion and change.^[1][7]
7. (colloquial) To have one's turn, in a game or a queue.^[1]

Word family

• Sein
• Dasein