singen

Forms

singen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present singt, past tense sang, past participle gesungen, past subjunctive sänge, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German singen, inherited from Old High German singan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *singwan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *singwaną (“to sing”), a strong verb.^[2][3][1] The same verb is Gothic 𐍃𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍅𐌰𐌽 (siggwan), Old Norse syngva, Old English singan, Old Frisian siunga and Old Saxon singan, and today Dutch zingen, English sing and Swedish sjunga.^[2][3]

It continues Proto-Indo-European *sengʷʰ-, also found in Ancient Greek ὀμφή (omphḗ, “voice of a god, oracle”) and Welsh dehongli (“to explain, interpret”).^[2][3][1] Kluge concludes that the original sense was “to recite”, and Duden and Wahrig that it was the solemn delivery of prophecies and religious texts.^[2][4][5] Gothic supports this: 𐍃𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍅𐌰𐌽 (siggwan) usually translates Greek “to read aloud” in Wulfila's Bible, and the noun Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌲𐌲𐍅𐍃 (saggws) means both “song” and “reading”.^[6] The Grimms' dictionary also reports Jacob Grimm's older idea of a link with Sange “bundle of ears of grain”, through a sense “to gather”.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German singan is recorded from 765 in glosses and then in many texts, among them the Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid, the Ludwigslied and Notker.^[7][8] Besides “to sing” and “to praise in song”, it meant “to play” an instrument, “to sound” and “to recite”, and was used for crowing and cackling;^[9][3] Pfeifer adds the speaking of spells.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German singen also meant “to compose poetry”, “to rejoice” and “to whistle, crackle”, and it was used of saying Mass.^[3][10] The pair singen und sagen, after Church Latin cantare et dicere, first named one act of performance and was later split into lyric and epic.^[11] From the Middle High German period the verb is used of birdsong; under the influence of Latin poeta it has also meant writing poetry since the 17th century.^[11]

Other transferred uses describe high, even sounds: ringing ears, telegraph wires, a kettle.^[11][12] In the early 20th century criminals' slang gave the verb the sense “to confess under interrogation”, first recorded in 1907.^[11] The old preterite plural sungen survives in the rhyming proverb wie die Alten sungen, so zwitschern die Jungen.^[11] The nouns Gesang and Sang belong to the same verb.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 765 – Old High German singan appears in glosses.^[7]
• Middle High German – Walther von der Vogelweide uses the verb of the nightingale.^[11]
• 15th century – Meistersinger is recorded.^[3]
• 17th century – Singspiel “stage play with songs” is formed.^[3]
• 18th century – Singsang “monotonous singing” is formed.^[3]
• 1907 – First record of the slang sense “to confess to the police”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To sing: to produce a melody with the voice: Die Kinder sangen auf dem Heimweg.; also of birds and of things that make a high, even sound: Der Wasserkessel singt auf dem Herd.^[12][1]
2. To sing a song or piece, or to sing a particular voice part: Sie singt Alt.^[12]
3. With a result: sich heiser singen, to sing oneself hoarse;^[12] ein Kind in den Schlaf singen.^[12]
4. (literary, dated) To tell of something in verse or song: jemandes Lob singen, to sing someone's praises.^[12]
5. (slang) To confess to the police or in court and incriminate accomplices.^[12][13]

Word family

• Gesang
• Sang
• Sänger
• Singspiel
• Singsang
• Meistersinger

Related words

• Song
• English sing

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 850
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 783
5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
6. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 1067
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 282
9. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 1248
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
12. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org