Etymologically
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spät

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Pronunciation

  • /ʃpɛːt/, /ʃpeːt/[1]

Forms

spät (strong nominative masculine singular später, comparative später, superlative am spätesten)[1] Beside the adjective stood an adverb without umlaut, Middle High German spāte, spāt, Old High German spāto, which survives as spat in poetry and dialect but is otherwise dated.[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German spæte, inherited from Old High German spāti, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *spādī, inherited from Proto-Germanic *spēdiz.[4][1] Outside German it is found only in Middle Dutch spade, whence Dutch spade, now dated, and in a superlative, Gothic 𐍃𐍀𐌴𐌳𐌿𐌼𐌹𐍃𐍄𐍃 (spēdumists, “the latest, last”).[2][5] The other Germanic languages use different words, as English late, which originally meant “slow”.[6]

Its further origin is not certain.[4][7] Kluge compares Lithuanian spė̃tas (“leisure”) and Latin spatium (“space, extent, duration”), and puts that word with spė́ti (“to have time”) and Old Church Slavonic спѣти (spěti, “to advance, prosper”), so with the family of sputen; the sense “to thrive, grow” would have been transferred to time, but he finds both the meanings and the sounds problematic.[4] Pfeifer and the Duden start from a sense “drawn out, advanced in time” and connect it with the same verb, from the root Proto-Indo-European *spē- (“to thrive, expand, get ahead”);[5][2] Pfeifer and the Duden dictionary also relate it to sparen.[5][8] Wiktionary gives the root as Proto-Indo-European *speh₁- (“to succeed, prosper”), with a development “prosper” > “last long” > “late”.[1] The Grimms' dictionary objects that the other Germanic words for “late” all go back to a sense “slow, sluggish”.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German spāti is first recorded in glosses of the early 9th century and in Otfrid, meaning “late, too late”; the adverb spāto is found in the Benedictine Rule of about 800, and also meant “in the evening”.[9][10] Pfeifer also cites a noun spātīn “slowness” from about 800.[5]

Semantic evolution

Paul describes the word as naming the end of a period of time: late in the day, opposed to früh, late in the year, and late in life (in späten Jahren).[3] With zu it marks a missed moment: zu spat kommen is recorded by Kramer, and Schiller's Spät kommt ihr, doch ihr kommt from the Piccolomini became a saying.[3] Since Middle High German früh und spat has meant “all day long, always”, as in Goethe's Faust.[3]

The superlative is used for an outer time limit, spätestens “at the latest”.[3] The derived verb verspäten, Middle High German verspæten, first meant “to linger” and also “to neglect”.[5][2] Spätling, a late-born animal or late fruit, is recorded from the 16th century.[2] English borrowed Spätlese, a wine from late-picked grapes, in 1926.[11]

Timeline

  • c. 800 – The adverb spāto is used in the Old High German Benedictine Rule.[9]
  • Early 9th century – The adjective spāti appears in glosses.[9][4]
  • c. 1000 – Old High German spāten “to be late” is recorded.[5]
  • 1172–1190 – Middle High German spæte is recorded.[12]
  • 16th century – Spätling is recorded.[2]
  • 1926 – English Spätlese is recorded.[11]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Far advanced in time, near the end of a period: am späten Nachmittag, im späten Mittelalter.[8][13]
  2. Later than expected or usual, belated: eine späte Reue, ein später Frost.[8][13]
  3. (of an artist) In the last period of his or her work: der späte Beethoven.[8]
  4. (hunting) Of tracks: made only towards morning.[13]

Adverb

  1. late: sie kam spät nach Hause;[8][1] wie spät ist es? “what time is it?”[8][1]

Word family

  • verspäten
  • Verspätung
  • spätestens
  • Spätling
  • Spätlese
  • Spätsommer
  • Spätherbst
  • Spätwerk
  • sputen
  • sparen

Usage notes

Besser spät als nie “better late than never” is recorded by Adelung.[14] The joking greeting je später der Abend, desto schöner die Gäste welcomes a guest who arrives late.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 797
  3. ^ a b c d e 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 c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 862
  5. ^ a b c d e f Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.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, 1974
  7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  9. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 304
  11. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  12. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  13. ^ a b c Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  14. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf