Etymologically
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unter

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Pronunciation

Forms

unter[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German under, inherited from Old High German untar, inherited from Proto-Germanic *under (“under, among”).[2][3][4] The same word is Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍂 (undar), Old Norse undir, Old English under, Old Frisian under and Old Saxon undar, and also Dutch onder, English under and Swedish under.[2][4]

In Germanic two prepositions of different origin fell together, so that the word means both “below” and “among”.[2][3][4][5] The sense “below” continues Proto-Indo-European *n̥dʰer (“under”), also in Sanskrit अधस् (adhás, “below”) and Latin īnfrā (“below”).[2][3][6] The sense “between” continues *n̥ter (“inside, between”), a form with a comparative suffix from the root of in, also in inter (“between”), Old Irish eter (“between”) and Ancient Greek ἔντερα (éntera, “entrails”).[2][3][4] Wiktionary explains the merger by Verner's law, which made their pre-Germanic forms alike.[1] The second word survives in Gothic and Old Norse only in the name of a meal between morning and noon, 𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐍄𐍃 (undaurnimats) and undorn, beside Old High German untarn (“midday meal”).[3][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German untar is first recorded in glosses of about 765 and in the Hildebrandslied, meaning “under, below” and “between, among”, and also “during” in phrases such as untar thiu “meanwhile”.[8][9][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “between two things” was largely taken over by zwischen: Luther could still write that there is no difference unter ihm und einem Knechte “between him and a servant”, and Lessing, Schiller and Gellert use the same construction.[5] The old meaning survives in unter uns “between ourselves” and unter vier Augen “in private”, while unter “among, in the midst of” remains common: unter die Leute bringen, unter anderem.[3][5]

From the sense “below” came ranking (unter jemandem arbeiten), falling short of a limit (unter null, Kinder unter 14 Jahren), accompanying circumstances (unter Tränen) and states (unter Druck).[3][10] The word forms many verbs, some of them Old High German, such as unterbrechen (10th century) and unterbinden (9th century), and nouns such as Unterseeboot (19th century).[3][6] The adjective unterer (Old High German untaro, about 1000) was formed from the preposition, and the playing card Unter (about 1500) is properly “the lower one”.[3][6]

Timeline

  • c. 765 – Old High German untar appears in glosses.[8]
  • 8th century – untar as a preposition “in, under, between”.[3]
  • c. 1000 – The adjective untaro “lower” is recorded.[3]
  • c. 1500 – Unter is first used as the name of a playing card.[3]
  • 19th century – Unterseeboot “submarine” is formed.[6]
  • Early 20th century – unterernährt “undernourished”, probably after English underfed.[3]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. Under, below, beneath: in a lower position than something (with the dative) or into such a position (with the accusative): unter der Brücke stehen, sich unter den Schirm stellen.[10][1]
  2. Covered by, directly underneath: unter einer Decke liegen, eine Bluse unter dem Mantel.[10]
  3. Below a value, rank or limit: unter dem Durchschnitt, unter null; as an adverb with numbers, “less than”.[10][3]
  4. among, in the midst of: unter Freunden, unter anderem “among other things”.[10][3][1]
  5. Subordinate to, under the leadership of: unter einem neuen Trainer spielen.[10][3]
  6. With, accompanied by, under a condition or state: unter Tränen, unter Druck stehen, unter der Bedingung, dass ….[10][3][1]
  7. (rare, regional) During: unter der Woche “during the week”.[1]

Word family

  • unter-
  • unterer
  • Unter
  • unterbrechen
  • unterbinden
  • Unterseeboot

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 943
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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 Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  5. ^ 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
  6. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 889
  7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 24, 1452
  8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 359
  10. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag