sowie

Forms

sowie^[1]

Etymology

It is from German so + wie, written together from the phrase “so wie”.^[1][2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Grimms' dictionary first quotes it from Lessing, as a strengthened wie in comparisons with the sense “according as”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Grimms list three uses at the end of the 19th century: the comparative particle, the joining particle “as well as”, which was then still more often written apart as so … wie, and, in colloquial speech, a conjunction of time for sobald.^[3] Both the joining sense and the sense of time are standard today.^[4]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. As well as, and also, joining the members of a list: Eingeladen sind die Lehrer sowie die Eltern.^[4][1]
2. As soon as: Sowie der Regen aufhört, gehen wir los.^[4][1][2]

Related words

• so
• wie
• sobald

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 1824
4. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag