statt

Forms

statt^[1]

Etymology

It is from German anstatt (“instead of”), shortened in the 17th century.^[2][3][4][1] The longer word arose in the 15th century from phrases with the noun Statt “place” and a genitive, as in an sîne stat (“in his place”) and the later phrase “in place of an oath”.^[2][3]

The noun is Middle High German stat, Old High German stat (8th century; inflected steti), from Proto-Germanic *stadiz (“place”).^[2][5][1] The same word is Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌸𐍃 (staþs), Old Norse staðr, Old English stede, English stead and Old Saxon stedi.^[2][3] It is an abstract noun with the suffix *-tis from the root Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), like Ancient Greek στάσις (stásis, “standing”) and Latin statiō (“standing, post”).^[2][1][6] Stadt is the same word, set apart by its spelling, and Stätte grew out of its inflected forms.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The idea of one thing standing in for another goes back to Middle High German phrases such as an sîne stat.^[4][2] The preposition anstatt with a following genitive is found from the 15th century.^[2] Its use as a conjunction (anstatt erfreuliche Antwort zu erlangen) dates from the 17th century,^[2] and the short form statt is recorded from the 17th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Statt zu with an infinitive and statt dass with a clause date from the 18th century.^[2][4] In Early New High German the preposition often took the accusative, and older writers sometimes used the dative: Lessing wrote dieses statt jenem and Goethe statt der Liebe süßem Wahn.^[4] Today it takes the genitive, and the dative where the genitive would not be visible.^[8]

The noun Statt itself became rare after Stadt and Stätte split off; it lives on in compounds such as Werkstatt and in phrases of substitution like an Kindes statt and an Eides statt, which the current spelling rules write with a small letter.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German stat “place” is recorded.^[2][5]
• 15th century – anstatt arises from phrases with Statt.^[2][3]
• 17th century – anstatt is used as a conjunction, and the short form statt appears.^[2][4]
• 18th century – statt dass and statt zu come into use.^[2][4]

Meanings

Preposition

1. (with genitive) instead of, in place of: Statt des Busses nahm sie ein Taxi.^[8][1]
2. (with dative, when the genitive is not marked) instead of: statt Briefen schickte er Postkarten.^[8]

Conjunction

1. Instead of, rather than (with zu and an infinitive, or with dass): Er schlief, statt zu lernen.^[8][9]
2. Rather than, and not (the following word taking the case the verb requires).^[9]

Word family

• stattdessen

Related words

• anstatt
• Statt
• Stadt
• Stätte
• stehen
• English stead

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 814
4. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 17, 953
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 878
8. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org