sowohl

Forms

sowohl (conjunction, invariable)^[1]

Etymology

It is a univerbation of so and wohl “well”,^[1][2] from the phrase meaning “just as well as”, which was written separately until the 19th century.^[3] Adelung still thought the separate spelling the correct one.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Paul cites the phrase from 1540, after the Grimm dictionary, meaning “just as well as”.^[3] Luther writes in Ezekiel 18:4: Des Vaters seele ist so wol mein / als des Sons seele (“the soul of the father is mine as well as the soul of the son”).^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 18th and 19th centuries, and still in the 20th (Thomas Mann), the phrase was also used negatively, nicht sowohl … als “not so much … as”, to mark an exclusion;^[3] Campe gives the example that it is not so much the man as his money that someone is after.^[3] The phrase was then extended with auch, giving sowohl … als auch “not only … but also”, as Kramer already records.^[3] Today the conjunction occurs only in this fixed pairing, with als or wie, and stresses that both members carry equal weight.^[5]

Timeline

• 1540 – First record of so wol … als “just as well as”.^[3]
• 1793 – Adelung prefers the separate spelling so wohl.^[4]
• 18th–19th century – The negative nicht sowohl … als “not so much … as” is in use.^[3]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. Only in sowohl … als (auch) and sowohl … wie (auch): both … and, not only … but also: Sie spricht sowohl Polnisch als auch Tschechisch.^[5][1]

Related words

• so
• wohl

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
4. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 154
5. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag