Etymologically
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völlig

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈfœlɪç/, /ˈfœlɪk/[1]

Forms

völlig (strong nominative masculine singular völliger, not comparable)[1] Forms without umlaut, vollig, are frequent in older New High German, as in Luther, and Alberus (1540) also has völlicht.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from German voll + -ig, already in Middle High German as vollec or vollic.[1][3][2] The Grimms note that the Middle High German adjective is very rarely recorded and absent from Old High German, while volleclîch and the adverb volleclîche are frequent and go back to Old High German, so that the shorter form is probably the younger.[2] The modern word also took over the place of vollîch.[2] Adelung compares Old High German fulucho, frequent in Otfrid, and Low German vullig.[4]

The base voll is Middle High German vol, Old High German fol, Proto-Germanic *fullaz (“full”), the same word as Gothic 𐍆𐌿𐌻𐌻𐍃 (fulls) and English full.[5][1] It is an old participle, “filled”, of the root Proto-Indo-European *pelh₁- (“to fill”), and corresponds to Latin plēnus and Lithuanian pìlnas.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German vollec meant “full, complete”; in the poem Die Erlösung Jonah lies in the fish biz vollec an den dritten tac “until fully the third day”.[2]

Semantic evolution

In older New High German völlig was used much as voll is today, especially of things that can be measured or counted: Luther's Bible has mit volligem gewicht “with full weight” (Genesis 43:21), and Adelung still gives ein völliges Jahr.[2][4] Adelung finds that use already receding, while the wider sense “complete in every degree”, as in völlige Gleichheit, was common.[4] He also records völlig for “stout, corpulent”, the only sense in which it was often compared, and Luther's völlig Gold for solid gold.[4] Most of these uses have since passed to voll and vollkommen, and the Grimms note that even the adverb, though very frequent, has a narrower range than in the older language.[2]

Timeline

  • Middle High German – vollec is recorded, but rarely.[2]
  • 16th century – Luther writes both vollig and völlig.[2]
  • 1540 – Alberus has the by-form völlicht.[2]
  • 1793 – Adelung records the sense “corpulent”.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. complete, total, entire, with nothing lacking: Im Saal herrschte völlige Stille.[3][1]

Adverb

  1. completely, entirely, totally: Ich bin völlig erschöpft.[3][1]
  • voll
  • vollends
  • vollkommen
  • füllen
  • Fülle

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 26, 667
  3. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ a b c d e Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf, p. 4, 1233
  5. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 962
  6. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 911