teilnehmen

Forms

teilnehmen (class 4 strong, third-person singular present nimmt teil, past tense nahm teil, past participle teilgenommen, past subjunctive nähme teil, auxiliary haben)^[1] Older spelling: theilnehmen.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is a compound from German Teil (“part”) + nehmen (“to take”), from the phrase teil nemen, teil neman (“to take part in, have a share in”), which took a genitive.^[3][4][5] Paul notes that until the 19th century it was often written separately.^[5] Wiktionary takes it as a calque of Latin participō (“to take part”), comparable with Dutch deelnemen and English take part.^[1]

The first part goes back to Middle High German teil, Old High German teil, from Proto-Germanic *dailiz, also found in Gothic 𐌳𐌰𐌹𐌻𐍃 (dails) and Old English dǣl, whence English deal.^[6][7][1] Kluge finds that only Old Church Slavonic дѣлъ (dělŭ, “part”) matches the Germanic form exactly, and it may be a loan from Germanic; Lithuanian dalis (“part”) lacks the diphthong, and Sanskrit दयते (dáyate, “divides”) and Ancient Greek δαίομαι (daíomai, “I divide”) begin differently.^[6] Pfeifer leaves open a root meaning “to divide” or a borrowing from a substrate language.^[7] The second part is nemen, neman, from *nemaną, whose outside connections Kluge calls unclear.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Schützeichel records teil neman with the genitive, “to take part in, to share in”, among the uses of teil in the Old High German texts, beside teil habēn “to have a share”.^[4] Paul likewise dates teilnehmen and teilhaben to Old High German.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Like Anteil nehmen, the verb was also used figuratively for “to feel with, sympathise”, as in Goethe's gegenwärtig wollten wir nur freudig theilnehmen “for now we wished only to share joyfully”.^[5][2] The infinitive was used as a noun as well, as in Karl Philipp Moritz's Anton Reiser.^[2] The present participle teilnehmend “sympathetic” keeps this sense, while the main use today is being present at an event or taking part in it.^[3]

Timeline

• Old High German – teil neman “to take part in” is recorded in the texts.^[4][5]
• 18th century – Goethe uses theilnehmen for sharing in someone's feelings.^[2]
• 19th century – The compound becomes fixed as one verb.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be present at an event, to attend: an der Trauerfeier teilnehmen.^[3][1]
2. To participate actively in an undertaking or event: an einem Marathon teilnehmen.^[3][1]
3. To take part as a learner: Sie nimmt an einem Spanischkurs teil.^[3]
4. To share in someone's feelings, to sympathise: an jemandes Kummer teilnehmen.^[3] Often in the present participle: teilnehmende Worte.^[3]

Word family

• Teilnehmer
• Teilnahme

Related words

• Teil
• nehmen
• teilhaben
• Anteil
• teilen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 21, 361
3. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 330
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 911
7. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 651