treten

Forms

treten (class 5 strong, third-person singular present tritt, past tense trat, past participle getreten, past subjunctive träte, auxiliary haben or sein)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German treten, inherited from Old High German tretan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tredan (“to tread”).^[2][3][1] The West Germanic strong verb is also continued in Old English tredan, Old Frisian treda, Middle Low German treden and Middle Dutch treden.^[2][3] Beside it stands a form with the vowel /u/, Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (trudan) and Old Norse troða, which goes back to Proto-Germanic *trudaną.^[2][3][1] Pfeifer regards the West Germanic verb as a new formation by ablaut beside the Gothic and Norse one, and the Grimms' dictionary notes that the North and East Germanic verb belongs to the fourth ablaut class, the West Germanic one to the fifth.^[3][4]

No exact match has been found outside Germanic.^[2][5] Kluge and the Duden therefore take the group to be imitative in origin, like trampeln and traben.^[2][5] Pfeifer suggests, with reserve, a participle Proto-Indo-European *druto- of Proto-Indo-European *dreu- (“to run”), an extension of Proto-Indo-European *der(ə)- (“to run, tread, trip”), which would also connect it with Treppe.^[3] The Grimms' dictionary objects to that link on the side of meaning, since treading as a verb of motion seems to be secondary.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German tretan appears in glosses of the early 9th century and then in the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “to tread, trample” and “to press hard”.^[6][7] The prefixed firtretan and gitretan are recorded already in the 8th century.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The oldest uses concern setting the foot on something and trampling it; as a verb of motion, “to step somewhere”, the word seems to be secondary.^[4] Old High German also had a weak causative tretten “to trample down” (11th century), which merged in form with the strong verb in late Middle High German and survives only in dialect participles such as Luxembourgish getratt.^[3][8]

With nouns of state the verb came to mark a beginning: in Kraft treten “to come into force”, in den Ruhestand treten “to retire”.^[9] Many derivatives took on figurative senses: Auftritt “scene of a play” is recorded from the 18th century, the participle betreten “embarrassed”, properly “caught in the act”, from the 16th, and austreten as a euphemism for going to the toilet, properly “to leave the room”, from the 19th.^[3][5] The Tretmühle, a treadmill driven by men or animals, is recorded from the 15th century and has meant dull daily work since the 19th.^[5] Polish tratować “to trample” (1480) is a borrowing of the German verb.^[10]

Timeline

• 8th century – The prefixed firtretan and gitretan are recorded.^[2]
• Early 9th century – Old High German tretan appears in glosses.^[6]
• 11th century – The causative tretten “to trample down” is recorded.^[3]
• 15th century – Tretmühle appears.^[5]
• 1480 – Polish tratować “to trample” is recorded, borrowed from German.^[10]
• 16th century – The participle betreten “embarrassed” appears.^[3]
• 18th century – Auftritt is used for a scene of a play.^[3]
• 19th century – austreten is used as a euphemism for relieving oneself.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To step, take one or a few steps in a certain direction (with sein): Sie trat in den Garten.^[11][1]
2. To tread on or in something, by accident (with sein, less often haben) or on purpose (with haben): Er ist auf eine Schnecke getreten.^[11][1]
3. To kick someone or something (with haben): Das Pferd hat den Knecht getreten.^[11][1]
4. To work a pedal or treadle with the foot; to pedal.^[11][1][12]
5. (football) To take a free kick, corner or penalty.^[11]
6. With a noun, to enter a state or begin an action: in Kraft treten “to come into force”, in den Ruhestand treten “to retire”.^[11][9]
7. Of poultry and game birds, to mate with (a hen).^[11][12]

Word family

• Tritt
• betreten
• vertreten
• Vertreter
• auftreten
• Auftritt
• antreten
• abtreten
• austreten
• eintreten
• übertreten
• zertreten
• Tretmühle
• Leisetreter

Related words

• Treppe
• trampeln
• traben
• Trott
• English tread

Usage notes

Jemandem zu nahe treten is to offend someone, and in jemandes Fußstapfen treten is to follow someone's example.^[9] The imperative is tritt, occasionally trete.^[9] Upper German and some Central German dialects have weak or double forms of the participle.^[4]

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 Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 929
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 22, 183
5. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 872
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 336
8. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 22, 237
9. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org