um

Forms

um (preposition with accusative; also adverb and conjunction)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German umbe, inherited from Old High German umbi, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *umbi, inherited from Proto-Germanic *umbi (“around, about”).^[2][1][3] The same word is Old Saxon umbi, Old English ymbe and Old Norse umb, and today Dutch om and Swedish om.^[2][4][3] Gothic lacks it; in meaning it is matched by 𐌱𐌹 (bi), which may come from the second part of the word.^[2]

Outside Germanic it corresponds to Sanskrit अभि (abhí, “around, on both sides”), Old Irish imm and Gaulish ambi- in names, and with a different vowel to Ancient Greek ἀμφί (amphí, “around”) and Latin amb-.^[2][4][5] Pfeifer sets up Proto-Indo-European *m̥bʰi as the zero grade of *ambʰi (“around, on both sides”).^[4] Kroonen and Wiktionary take it as an old instrumental of the noun *h₂ent- (“face, front”), through *h₂m̥bʰi.^[3][1] Kluge calls its further origin unclear, and connects bei and beide.^[2]

Central German dialects regularly have the umlauted ⟨üm⟩; standard ⟨um⟩ is the Upper German form, where umlaut of /u/ was blocked before labial clusters.^[1][6] The ⟨b⟩ of ⟨umbe⟩ was assimilated in Low and Central German, giving ⟨umme⟩.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German umbi is recorded from the 8th century.^[2][4] In Isidor, Otfrid, Tatian, Notker and other texts it means “around, round about, near”, but also “because of”, “for the sake of”, “for” and “concerning”, as in umbi mitten dag “at midday”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

The original spatial sense “around” has survived, beside many transferred uses.^[5] With times it marks an exact point (um 12 Uhr) or an approximate one (um Pfingsten); it also gives a cause (jemanden um etwas beneiden), an aim (um Hilfe bitten), and with the genitive the phrase um … willen “for the sake of”; with zu and an infinitive it became a conjunction “in order to”.^[4] As an adverb it means “about” (er ist um zwanzig) and “over, past” (die Stunde ist um).^[4] In compounds it keeps the idea of enclosing (umarmen), or marks a change of direction or position (umkehren) or of shape (umformen).^[5] Middle High German umbe sus “for nothing” is the source of umsonst.^[9]

The umlauted form üm is found in literary texts until about 1700 and ruled in Early New High German printing in the north and centre.^[6] In the 18th century um was still sometimes used with the dative, as in Lessing.^[10] English borrowed umlaut in 1844.^[11]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German umbi is first recorded.^[2][4]
• 15th century – umher “all around” appears.^[4]
• 16th–17th centuries – The umlauted üm becomes more and more regular in Nuremberg printing.^[6]
• 17th century – nicht umhinkönnen “to be unable to avoid” is recorded.^[4]
• c. 1700 – üm disappears from literary texts.^[6]
• 18th century – mit umgehender Post “by return of post”, the source of umgehend “immediately” (19th century).^[4]
• 1844 – English borrows umlaut.^[11]

Meanings

Preposition

1. (with accusative) around: moving round a centre (um die Sonne kreisen).^[12][1]
2. (with accusative) Around: enclosing or surrounding something.^[12][1]
3. At: an exact time (um sieben Uhr).^[12][1]
4. Around, about: an approximate time or value.^[12][1]
5. By: the size of a difference.^[1]
6. For, about: what one asks for or what something concerns.^[4][13]
7. (Austria) For: the price of something.^[1]

Conjunction

1. um … zu: in order to.^[1][4]

Adverb

1. About, approximately.^[4][1]

Adjective

1. (predicative) over, up: finished (die Pause ist um).^[12][1]

Word family

• ums
• umher
• umhin
• umgehend
• umsonst
• Umlaut

Related words

• bei
• beide

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. 940
3. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 23, 761
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 347
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 2, 1721
10. ^ 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 Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org