Etymologically
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suchen

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈzuːxən/, [ˈzuː.xn̩][1]

Forms

suchen (third-person singular present sucht, past tense suchte, past participle gesucht, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German suochen, inherited from Old High German suohhen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *sōkijan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *sōkijaną (“to seek”).[2][3][1][4] The same verb is Gothic 𐍃𐍉𐌺𐌾𐌰𐌽 (sōkjan), Old Norse sœkja, Old English sēcan, Old Frisian sēka and Old Saxon sōkian, continued in English seek and Dutch zoeken.[2][4]

Within Germanic it looks like a causative beside the strong verb Proto-Germanic *sakaną (“to dispute”) (see Sache), and Pfeifer takes it as such, in ablaut with Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌺𐌰𐌽 (sakan, “to quarrel”).[3] Kluge leaves the analysis open because the verb compares better outside Germanic,[2] and Kroonen finds a causative unlikely because of the e-grade of the Greek and Latin cognates and the non-causative meaning.[4] The cognates are Latin sāgiō (“to perceive keenly”), Old Irish saigid (“seeks”), Ancient Greek ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai, “to lead”) and Hittite šakk- (“to know”), from Proto-Indo-European *seh₂g- (“to seek out”).[2][1] The starting point was probably a hound picking up a scent, which could lead both to “seek” and to “lead”.[2][5]

The vowel without umlaut is originally Upper German, supported by the past forms, beside an umlauted Central German form like Luxembourgish sichen.[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German suohhen is first recorded in glosses of about 765 and then in the Isidor translation, the Monsee fragments, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “to seek, search for, investigate, demand, strive for”.[7][8] The Monsee fragments say diin muoter enti bruoder stantant uze suohhent dih “your mother and brothers stand outside seeking you”, and Tatian thie suohhit findit “he who seeks finds”.[6]

Semantic evolution

From Old High German on the verb meant not only trying to find something hidden or lost but also striving after something.[5][9] Paul takes “to track down, seek out” (even what one knows the place of) as the wider, original Germanic sense, kept in aufsuchen, besuchen and heimsuchen.[10] The legal use, as in besuchen and ersuchen, is recorded in the Grimms' dictionary.[6] In hunting the verb means “to track”, and Suche has named the work of the tracking dog since the 16th century.[3][5]

The construction with zu and an infinitive, “to try to”, is in use from Early New High German.[10] The participle gesucht came to mean “in demand” in the merchants' language of the 17th century and “affected, contrived” in the 18th.[10] The phrase asking what someone has hier zu suchen was probably legal in origin.[10]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German suohhen appears in glosses.[7]
  • 16th century – Suche is used for the work of a tracking dog.[5]
  • 17th century – gesucht “in demand” appears in merchants' language.[10]
  • 18th century – gesucht “affected, contrived” is recorded.[10]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To search for, look for someone or something lost or hidden; also with nach: Er sucht seine Schlüssel.[11][1]
  2. To try to obtain something one needs: eine Arbeit suchen;[11] Zimmer gesucht.[11]
  3. To try to find out by thinking: nach einer Lösung suchen;[11] nach Worten suchen.[11]
  4. To seek, to strive for: Rat suchen;[11][10] Streit suchen;[11][10] sein Glück suchen.[11][10]
  5. (formal), with zu and an infinitive: to try, endeavour: Sie suchte ihn zu beruhigen.[11][1]
  6. (hunting) To track game.[3]

Word family

Usage notes

Wer sucht, der findet goes back to Matthew 7:7, in Luther suchet, so werdet ihr finden.[11][10] Irgendwo nichts zu suchen haben means “to have no business being somewhere”, and seinesgleichen suchen “to be without equal”.[11] The verb was borrowed into the Polish dialect of Teschen as zuchtać “to search, snoop around”.[12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 897
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 839
  6. ^ 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. 20, 834
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 322
  9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 c d e f g h i j k Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de