teuer

Forms

teuer (strong nominative masculine singular teurer, comparative teurer, superlative am teuersten)^[1] The older spelling is theuer.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German tiure, inherited from Old High German tiuri (“precious, dear, esteemed”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *diurī, inherited from Proto-Germanic *diurijaz (“dear, precious”).^[3][4][1] The same word is Old Saxon diuri, Old Norse dýrr, Old English dēore and Old Frisian diūre, continued in English dear, Dutch duur and Swedish dyr; it is missing only in Gothic.^[3][4][5] Finnish borrowed the Germanic word early.^[4]

Its origin is unclear.^[3][6][5] It is related to dauern “to feel sorry”, but has no secure connection outside Germanic.^[4][6] Kluge tentatively suggests an r-formation from Proto-Indo-European *dʰegʷʰ- (“to warm, burn”), so first “cherished”, comparing Latin foveō (“to warm, cherish”) and Lithuanian degti (“to burn”).^[3][7][1] Kroonen, who finds no accepted etymology, sees a vṛddhi formation meaning “to be mourned”, beside the verb behind bedauern, which may itself be a dissimilated form of trauern.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German tiuri is first recorded in glosses of the end of the 8th century, then in Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “costly, precious, valuable; dear; esteemed; extraordinary”;^[8][9] tiuri stein was a gem.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Duden notes that the senses “dear, valued” and “costing much” were already both present in the older stages of the language.^[6] Paul traces the first, “valuable, precious”, applied in Early New High German to persons (“excellent”) and now only relative to someone who values the person or thing, as in Adelung's Mein theuerster Freund! (1780) or Schiller's ans Vaterland, ans teure.^[2] The sense “high-priced” is also early, in Luther's teure Zeit “time of high prices” (Matthew 24:7) and the threat das kommt dich teuer zu stehen.^[2]

An old sense “scarce, hard to get” survives in da ist guter Rat teuer “it is hard to know what to do”.^[2] From hoch und teuer in oaths came beteuern “to affirm solemnly” in the early 17th century.^[4][2] Teuerung, Middle High German tiurunge, meant “price” into the 18th century and now means a rise in prices.^[2][4]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German tiuri in glosses.^[8]
• 863–871 – The adverb tiuro in Otfrid.^[8]
• 1077–1081 – Middle High German tiure in the Annolied.^[10]
• 15th century – beteurung “assurance”.^[4]
• Early 17th century – beteuern in its modern sense.^[4]
• 1780 – Adelung's dictionary has Mein theuerster Freund!.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. expensive, costing much: ein teures Hotel;^[11][1] jemandem teuer zu stehen kommen “to cost someone dear”.^[11][1]
2. (elevated) dear, precious, highly valued: meine teure Schwester;^[11][1] (jocular) meine Teuerste “my dearest”.^[11][1]

Word family

• Teuerung
• sauteuer
• schweineteuer
• sündteuer
• Teuro
• beteuern
• verteuern

Related words

• dauern
• bedauern
• English dear
• English darling

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
3. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 915
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
8. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 332
10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag