teilen

Forms

teilen (third-person singular present teilt, past tense teilte, past participle geteilt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German teilen, inherited from Old High German teilen, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *dailijan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *dailijaną (“to divide, share”), a verb formed from the noun *dailiz (“part”), continued by Teil.^[2][3][1][4] The same verb is Old Saxon dēlian, Old English dǣlan (the source of English deal), Old Norse deila, Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (dailjan), Dutch delen and Swedish dela,^[3][5][4] and the noun is 𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌻𐍃 (dails).^[2]

Outside Germanic, Kluge finds only Old Church Slavonic дѣлъ (dělŭ, “part”) an exact match in form, and that may have been borrowed from Germanic; Lithuanian dalìs (“part”) lacks the diphthong, and Ancient Greek δαίομαι (daíomai, “I divide”) has a different onset.^[2] Pfeifer compares dailýti (“to divide”) and asks whether the words go back to a root Proto-Indo-European *dā(i)- “to divide, cut up” or come from a substrate language.^[3] Its further origin is unclear.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German teilen appears in glosses of the last quarter of the 8th century and then in the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[6][7] It meant to divide, distribute, hand out, assign and impart, and also to pass judgement on someone.^[7][6]

Semantic evolution

Early New High German used it for cutting a whole into pieces and, in arithmetic, for dividing a number, already in Konrad von Megenberg; for separating persons or things, dividing an inheritance, handing out, taking part in something, and also for judging and deciding.^[8] The noun Teilung is old (around 900) and teilbar dates from the 17th century.^[3][5]

The compound mitteilen at first meant to share something with someone in general.^[5] From the 15th century it was gradually restricted to news and knowledge.^[5] Abteil, shortened from Abteilung, replaced French coupé for a railway compartment in the second half of the 19th century.^[5] The verb was borrowed into Slovene as talati.^[9]

Timeline

• Last quarter of the 8th century – teilen in Old High German glosses.^[6]
• c. 900 – teilunga “division”.^[3]
• 15th century – mitteilen starts to narrow to news and knowledge.^[5]
• 17th century – teilbar appears.^[3]
• Second half of the 19th century – Abteil “railway compartment”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To divide a whole into parts: einen Kuchen in acht Stücke teilen.^[10][1]
2. (mathematics) To divide one number by another.^[10][1]
3. To share out among several people: Sie teilten den Erlös unter sich.^[10]
4. To share what one has with someone; figuratively, to share a view or a feeling: Ich teile deine Sorge.^[10][1]
5. To split something into two parts, as a line, a border or a river does.^[10]
6. To use something together with someone: ein Büro mit einer Kollegin teilen; to be affected by something together with others: sein Schicksal teilen.^[10]
7. (sich teilen in, elevated) To take equal shares in something.^[10]
8. (sich teilen) To go apart in different directions, to fork: Hinter dem Dorf teilt sich die Straße.^[10]

Word family

• abteilen
• erteilen
• mitteilen
• urteilen
• verteilen
• aufteilen
• austeilen
• dreiteilen
• einteilen
• unterteilen
• vierteilen
• zerteilen
• zuteilen
• zweiteilen

Related words

• Teil
• Urteil
• English deal

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 911
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 330
8. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
9. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
10. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag