stellen

Forms

stellen (third-person singular present stellt, past tense stellte, past participle gestellt, auxiliary haben)^[1] Old High German had the preterite stalta and Middle High German stalte, without umlaut; the participle gestalt survives in Gestalt and Anstalt.^[2][3] Luther already inflected stellte, gestellt, and the forms with a became rare in the written language in the 17th century, though the participle gestalt lasted into the 18th.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German stellen, inherited from Old High German stellen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *stalljan (“to put, place”).^[4][1][5] The same verb is Old Saxon stellian, Middle Low German stellen, Old Frisian stella and Old English stellan, and today Dutch stellen.^[2][5] Old Norse stilla and Swedish ställa stand further off, since they presuppose another ablaut grade.^[3]

Kluge, Pfeifer, the EWA and Duden explain it as a verb formed from the noun that became Stall, in its old sense “standing place”, so that it first meant “to bring to a standing place, set up”.^[4][2][5][6] That noun is Proto-Germanic *stallaz, which Kroonen takes as an instrument noun of Proto-Indo-European *steh₂- (“to stand”), the root of stehen, formally identical with Latin stabulum (“stable”).^[7] Kluge and Riecke, quoted in the EWA, allow as an alternative a causative of a root Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to place”), which is otherwise unattested in Germanic; the EWA notes that this works only if the noun also belongs to that root.^[4][5] Duden takes this root as an extension of the root meaning “to stand” and compares Ancient Greek στέλλω (stéllō, “to set up, equip, send”) and locus (“place”), older Old Latin stlocus.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German stellen is recorded from the 8th century, first in the Abrogans glossary and other glosses, then in Psalm 138 and in Notker, meaning “to set up, erect, place, arrange, settle”.^[4][5][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Duden notes that the verb came to be used as the causative of stehen in general, “to make stand, direct, fix”.^[6] The reflexive sich stellen expresses entering the position, where older German could also use stehen.^[10] In hunting, dogs stellen the game when they bring it to bay, and the game stellt sich when it turns to fight; from this comes the common sense “to corner, intercept”, as of the police.^[10][1]

Paul also lists the uses “to provide, furnish” (recruits, witnesses, guarantors) and reflexive “to give oneself up” or “to face” a test or an interview.^[10] With abstract nouns stellen forms many fixed combinations: eine Frage stellen, einen Antrag stellen, in Frage stellen, in Rechnung stellen, zur Rede stellen.^[10][1] The participle gestellt means “posed, unnatural” of a photograph or scene.^[10]

The noun Stelle is a back-formation of the 16th century, replacing Middle High German stal “standing place”.^[2][6] nachstellen “to lie in wait for” (16th century) first meant setting snares, and reflexive vorstellen “to imagine” is also from the 16th century.^[2] The verb was borrowed into Polish as stalować “to order” (1611) and into Czech as štelovat “to prepare, adjust”.^[11]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German stellen appears in the Abrogans glossary.^[4][5]
• 1150–1170 – Middle High German stellen appears in Lamprecht's Alexander.^[12]
• 16th century – Stelle is formed from the verb; nachstellen and vorstellen “to imagine” appear.^[2]
• 1611 – Polish stalować “to order” is first recorded.^[11]
• 17th century – The preterite stalte becomes rare in the written language.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To go to a place and stand there: sich ans Fenster stellen; figuratively sich hinter jemanden stellen “to back someone”.^[13]
2. To put or place someone or something upright somewhere: die Flasche in den Kühlschrank stellen.^[13][1]
3. To set or adjust a device: den Wecker auf sechs stellen.^[1][14]
4. To provide, make available: einen Zeugen stellen.^[1][10]
5. To catch, corner or intercept: die Polizei stellte den Dieb.^[1][14]
6. (reflexive) To give oneself up, or to face something: sich der Polizei stellen, sich der Kritik stellen.^[1][14]
7. With abstract nouns, forming fixed phrases: eine Frage stellen “to ask”, einen Antrag stellen “to apply”.^[1][14]
8. (reflexive) To feign, pretend: sich schlafend stellen.^[1][14]

Word family

• Stelle
• Stellung
• abstellen
• anstellen
• ausstellen
• bestellen
• entstellen
• herstellen
• nachstellen
• verstellen
• vorstellen
• Gestell
• Stellvertreter
• Anstalt
• Gestalt

Related words

• Stall
• stehen
• still
• Stollen
• Stelze

Usage notes

Auf sich selbst gestellt sein means “to have to manage on one's own”.^[13][1] Jemandem ein Bein stellen (“trip someone up”) and sein Licht unter den Scheffel stellen (“hide one's light under a bushel”) are fixed idioms.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 18, 2195
4. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 881
5. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 8, 1038
6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 819
7. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 313
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ 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
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 Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
14. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org