Etymologically
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stecken

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃtɛkən/, [ˈʃtɛkən], [ˈʃtɛkŋ][1]

Forms

stecken (weak or irregular strong, third-person singular present steckt, past tense steckte or (archaic) stak, past participle gesteckt, past subjunctive steckte or (archaic) stäke, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German stecken (“to fasten by piercing; to stick fast”), inherited from Old High German steckōn (“to stick fast, be fixed”).[2][3] The Middle High German verb merges this intransitive durative, also written steckēn, with a causative stecken (“to fasten by piercing, nail on”).[3][4][5] Both belong to stechen “to prick, pierce”, with a doubled consonant that Kluge thinks may at first have been intensive;[2][6] Old High German also had stehhōn (“to prick, goad”).[2][6] The EWA counts the causative as a causative-iterative of the Old High German verb for “to pierce”, whose root vowel it took over by analogy, and sees an older causative with another ablaut grade in Old Norse steikja (“to roast on a spit”).[7]

The base verb goes back to Proto-Germanic *stekaną.[1][2] Outside Germanic Kluge compares Latin īnstīgō (“to spur on”), Ancient Greek στίζω (stízō, “to tattoo, mark”) and, without the initial ⟨s⟩, Sanskrit तिग्म (tigmá, “sharp, pointed”).[2] Köbler and Pfeifer give the root as Proto-Indo-European *(s)teyg- (“to prick, pointed”).[6][3] The noun Stecken “stick”, like Old English sticca and English stick, is close to it in form, though Kluge also weighs another source for it.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates the first Old High German records of stehhōn to glosses of about 765, with the senses “to prick, pierce, goad with a stick, stick in”.[6] The EWA finds the prefixed gistecken in glosses from about 800 meaning “to hold fast, pierce, pitch a tent”, and Schützeichel records the intransitive verb in Notker.[7][8]

Semantic evolution

In the transitive verb Paul starts from putting one thing into another with a push, as a needle into a dress, a sword into its sheath or a stake into the ground, and in farming beans and potatoes are “stuck” into the soil.[9] From there it came to mean bringing someone or something to a place without a thrust, as jemanden ins Gefängnis stecken, and figuratively setting a goal or putting money and work into something.[9] The phrase jemandem etwas stecken “to tip someone off secretly” is quoted from Laukhard's memoirs.[9] Duden explains es jemandem stecken “to give someone a piece of one's mind” by the custom of the Vehmic courts, which pinned summonses to the door with a dagger.[5]

The intransitive verb has taken strong forms from stechen since the 16th century, so that stak stands beside steckte.[2][4] Luther liked present forms such as du stickest and er stickt, and Goethe wavered between the patterns.[10] The old weak past of the transitive verb, stackte, is still found at the end of the 17th century, in Reuter's Schelmuffsky of 1697.[11] Among the derivatives, Stecknadel dates from the 15th century, Steckbrief and Steckrübe from the 16th, Stecker from the 17th and Steckling from the 18th; the Steckbrief was at first a warrant to put someone in prison.[4][3]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German stehhōn appears in glosses.[6]
  • c. 800 – The prefixed gistecken is glossed.[7]
  • 15th century – First record of Stecknadel.[4]
  • 16th century – Strong forms such as stak appear;[2][4] Steckbrief and Steckrübe are first recorded.[2][4]
  • 1697 – Reuter still uses the weak past stackte.[11]
  • 17th century – First record of Stecker.[3]
  • 18th century – First record of Steckling.[3]
  • 20th century – Stecker comes to mean an electrical plug.[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (transitive) To put something in a particular place, often through an opening; to insert: Er steckte den Schlüssel ins Schloss. Sie steckte das Handy in die Jackentasche.[5][1]
  2. (transitive) To fix or pin something on or in something: eine Brosche an die Bluse stecken.[5]
  3. (transitive, regional) To plant bulbs or tubers: Tulpenzwiebeln stecken.[5]
  4. (transitive, colloquial) To tell someone something secretly: Wer hat dir das gesteckt? Fixed phrase: es jemandem stecken, to tell someone bluntly what one thinks.[5][1]
  5. (intransitive; past also stak) To be in a place where something has been put; to be stuck: Der Schlüssel steckt noch. Die Gräte steckte ihm im Hals.[5][1]
  6. (intransitive, colloquial) To be somewhere, to be hiding, or to be behind something: Wo steckst du denn? Wer steckt hinter diesem Gerücht?[1]
  7. (intransitive) To be full of something: Der Junge steckt voller Ideen.[5]
  8. (transitive, colloquial) To give something up: Den Ausflug können wir stecken.[5]

Word family

  • Stecken
  • Stecker
  • Steckling
  • verstecken
  • Stecknadel
  • Steckbrief
  • Steckrübe
  • anstecken
  • abstecken
  • hochstecken
  • stechen
  • wegstecken
  • zurückstecken
  • Stich
  • ersticken
  • English stick

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 879
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 816
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 8, 1034
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 313
  9. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 17, 1319
  11. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 17, 1298