und

Forms

und^[1] Older spellings include unnd, unndt and vnd.^[1][2] The Middle High German form unde died out in the written language in the 16th century.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German unde, inherited from Old High German unti, inherited from Proto-Germanic *anþi, with the zero-grade variant *unþi.^[4][1][5] The vowel varies in Old High German: Bavarian texts have anti, most other Upper German sources of the 8th and 9th centuries enti with umlaut, and mainly Franconian inti is probably its weakly stressed variant; unta and the like continue the zero grade and later ousted the other forms, so that Notker has only unde.^[5]

The same conjunction is Old Saxon endi, Old Frisian and, Old English and (whence English and) and Middle Dutch ende (whence Dutch en); Old Norse enn (“and, but”) is related.^[4][6] Kluge thinks it first had a contrasting sense, “on the other hand, opposite”, still traceable in Norse and German, and connects it with Proto-Indo-European *hanti (“on the front side, opposite”), seen in Hittite ḫanti (“separately”), Sanskrit अन्ति (ánti, “near, opposite”), Ancient Greek ἀντί (antí, “opposite, against”) and Latin ante (“before”), the locative of a root noun meaning “front, forehead”, which also lies behind Ende.^[4][7] The EWA likewise derives the full-grade and zero-grade Germanic forms from the locative of that root noun, *h₂ent- (“front, forehead”),^[5] which also gave Old High German andi (“forehead”).^[8]

Pfeifer, by contrast, finds connections outside Germanic uncertain: he doubts a link with अथ (átha, “then, thereupon”) and considers comparing Tocharian B entwe (“then”) and starting from an extension of *en (“in”).^[6] Wahrig and the Duden dictionary leave its origin open.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German inti and its variants, recorded from the 8th century, meant “and”, but also “also, but, so, for, namely”.^[4][11][5] The Hildebrandslied names its heroes in its first line as Hiltibrant enti Hadubrant.^[2] Köbler, who counts about 5,500 instances, lists a runic inscription of the third quarter of the 6th century among the sources.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old High German the word mostly just joined words, phrases and clauses, as it does today.^[6] In Middle High German and older New High German, when it introduced a clause, it often came close to a subordinating conjunction with the sense “if”, “although”, “whereas” or “when”.^[6] Repetition with und expresses increase or continuance (näher und näher, er lief und lief), while pairs like der und der “such and such” leave something unspecified.^[2][10]

To end a list that is not complete, German now mostly uses und so weiter (from the 18th century); und andere goes back to the late 15th century and und dergleichen to the early 16th.^[6] The short form un survives in imitations of popular speech, as in Fontane.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German inti, enti, anti and unti are recorded.^[4][6]
• 9th century – Forms with u- (unti, unta, unde) appear and later displace the others.^[6][5]
• Late 15th century – und ander is used to close a list.^[6]
• Early 16th century – First use of und dergleichen.^[6]
• 16th century – The old full form unde dies out in the written language.^[3]
• 18th century – und so weiter becomes the usual way to end a list.^[6]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. and: joins words, phrases and clauses in a list or sequence.^[10][1]
2. Joins a word to itself to express increase or continuation: es regnete und regnete “it rained and rained”.^[10]
3. Joins a clause to a preceding one, adding a sequel, a consequence or a contrast.^[10]
4. (colloquial) In elliptical questions, setting a person against an activity to express disbelief: ich und singen? “me, sing?”.^[10][1]
5. In sums: plus.^[10]

Interjection

1. So? And? Asking someone to go on or come to the point.^[1]

Related words

• Ende
• English and

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 24, 405
4. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 941
5. ^ a b c d e Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 125
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
7. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
10. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling