Etymologically
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steigen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈʃtaɪ̯ɡən/, [ˈʃtaɪ̯ɡən], [ˈʃtaɪ̯ɡn̩][1]

Forms

steigen (class 1 strong, third-person singular present steigt, past tense stieg, past participle gestiegen, auxiliary sein)[1] The past singular steig was replaced by stieg, from the plural, around 1600, after much variation in the 16th century; a by-form stiege is found in the 16th and 17th centuries.[2] Weak imperatives such as steige appear from Schottel on and became more frequent in the 18th century.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German stīgen, inherited from Old High German stīgan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stīgan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *stīganą (“to climb, ascend”).[3][1] The same strong verb is Gothic 𐍃𐍄𐌴𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (steigan), Old Norse stíga, Old English stīgan (obsolete English sty), Old Frisian stīga and Old Saxon stīgan, and today Dutch stijgen and Swedish stiga.[3][4][5]

Outside Germanic it is related to Ancient Greek στείχω (steíkhō, “I march, go”), Old Irish tíagu (“I go”), Lithuanian steĩgti (“to found, establish, (dialect) to hurry”) and Old Church Slavonic постигнѫти (postignǫti, “to reach, catch up with”), and perhaps also to Latin vestīgium (“footprint”) and Latvian staigāt (“to walk”).[3][5][4] The root is Proto-Indo-European *steygʰ- (“to stride, climb”).[5][6][1] The sense “to stride” has left only traces in Germanic, chiefly in Steig “footpath”; the verb meant “to climb up or down” from the start.[6][7] Kluge calls the ⟨ie⟩ of the past forms an unexplained irregularity of the ablaut.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German stīgan is first recorded in glosses of the third quarter of the 8th century, and then in Otfrid, the Tatian, Notker and other texts, meaning “to climb, go up, go down”.[8][3] Middle High German stīgen meant “to climb, rise, ascend”, the latter from Williram (1060–1065).[9][10]

Semantic evolution

In Germanic the verb was limited to going up or down; downwards only with a word of direction (vom Berg steigen), while without one upwards is understood.[7] It was soon used of any upward movement, as in Claudius's Abendlied (aus den Wiesen steiget / Der weiße Nebel wunderbar), and in Early New High German also of mountains that rise (1606) and of rockets (1677); it was used of aircraft from 1916.[7] Kites have been made to rise (Drachen steigen lassen) since the 18th century.[7]

Figurative uses are old: beer that rises to the head is recorded in 1571, and jemandem aufs Dach steigen “to scold someone” in the 17th century.[7] From the 17th century the verb also meant “to rise in value”, as of gold in Harsdörffer and of shares in 1727, and then of prices generally.[7] The colloquial sense “to take place”, of a party or an event, is modern.[11][1]

Timeline

  • 3rd quarter of the 8th century – Old High German stīgan appears in glosses.[8]
  • 1060–1065 – Middle High German stīgen is used by Williram.[9]
  • 1571 – First record of beer rising to the head.[7]
  • c. 1600 – The past singular stieg replaces steig.[2]
  • 1606 – Used of mountains rising.[7]
  • 17th century – First uses for rising in value.[7]
  • 1727 – Die Actien steigen oder fallen is recorded.[7]
  • 1916 – Used of aircraft climbing.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To rise, to move upwards: Rauch steigt aus dem Schornstein.[11][1]
  2. To climb, to go up or down on foot: auf den Dachboden steigen.[11][1]
  3. To step onto, into or out of something, especially a vehicle: in den Zug steigen, vom Rad steigen.[11][1]
  4. To rise in level: Das Wasser steigt.[11][1]
  5. To increase in amount or value: Die Mieten sind gestiegen.[11][1]
  6. Of demands or prospects: to grow.[11]
  7. (colloquial) To take place: Am Samstag steigt das Fest.[11][1]
  8. Of a horse: to rear up.[1]

Word family

  • Steig
  • Steige
  • Stiege
  • Steiger
  • Steigung
  • steigern
  • Steigbügel
  • Steigeisen
  • aufsteigen
  • absteigen
  • aussteigen
  • einsteigen
  • umsteigen
  • besteigen
  • ersteigen
  • versteigen
  • verstiegen
  • Aufstieg
  • Steg
  • steil
  • Stegreif

Usage notes

The proverb wer hoch steigt, fällt tief “the higher one climbs, the further one falls” warns against ambition.[11] The nouns formed from compounds of the verb end in -stieg (Aufstieg, Abstieg), a pattern already found in Old High German ūfstīg.[6][5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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. 18, 1874
  3. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 880
  4. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d 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 c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 1194
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag