verbinden

Forms

verbinden (class 3 strong, third-person singular present verbindet, past tense verband, past participle verbunden, past subjunctive verbände, auxiliary haben)^[1] The verb is mostly strong, though weak forms occur in New High German.^[2] The past plural verbanden replaced the older verbunden by analogy with the singular.^[2] The old past subjunctive verbünde lasted until about the end of the 17th century and then gave way to verbände.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German verbinden, inherited from Old High German firbintan (“to bind up, bandage”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *frabindan, made of the prefix ver- and binden.^[1][3][4] The same compound is Old English forbindan, Old Frisian forbinda and Dutch verbinden.^[2][1]

The simple verb is Proto-Germanic *bindaną, also in Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌽𐌳𐌰𐌽 (bindan), Old Norse binda and Old English bindan, continued in English bind.^[4][5] It comes from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind”), whose verb survives in Sanskrit बध्नाति (badhnā́ti, “binds”), while the other languages have only derivatives such as Ancient Greek πεῖσμα (peîsma, “ship's cable”), Latin offendix (“chin strap of a priest's cap”) and Lithuanian beñdras (“companion”).^[4][6]

Apart from the sense “to bind wrongly”, where it marks a mistake, the prefix only strengthens the simple verb, in two directions: covering by binding, and joining firmly together.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German firbintan is recorded around 1000 in Notker, meaning to bind up or bandage; the Grimms' dictionary quotes his nieht ne ferbint den mund demo rinde (“do not bind up the mouth of the ox”, Deuteronomy 25:4).^[3][2] In the Middle High German Parzival, Gawan binds wounds with a lady's headcloth: die wunden verbant.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense of covering with a bandage or cloth (a wound, the eyes) is still current.^[8][2] In the sense “to join” the image of binding gradually faded, so that a canal verbindet two rivers and a railway two towns, chemical elements verbinden sich, and people unite for a common aim or in marriage.^[8] Transferred, it meant to oblige or bind by a vow, which survives in the courtesy phrase ich bin Ihnen sehr verbunden “I am much obliged to you” and in verbindlich (end of the 16th century), “binding”, later “courteous”.^[8]

Verbindung is recorded from the 15th century; in the sense “students' fraternity” Paul quotes it from Gutzkow.^[8] In bookbinding, ein Buch verbinden is to bind it wrongly.^[8][7] The telephone sense “to put through” is the latest.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Notker uses Old High German firbintan “to bind up”.^[3][2]
• 15th century – Verbindung is recorded.^[8]
• End of the 16th century – verbindlich appears.^[8]
• End of the 17th century – The subjunctive verbünde gives way to verbände.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To bandage a wound or an injured person: sie verband ihm das Knie.^[9][1]
2. To cover with a cloth or band: jemandem die Augen verbinden, to blindfold someone.^[9]
3. (bookbinding) To bind a book wrongly.^[9][8]
4. To join or fasten together into a whole: zwei Kabel miteinander verbinden.^[9][1]
5. (reflexive) To combine and form something new: Öl verbindet sich nicht mit Wasser.^[9][10]
6. To connect separate places or things: eine Brücke verbindet die beiden Ufer.^[9][8]
7. (telephony) To put through a caller.^[1][10]
8. To associate or combine qualities, ideas or activities: Arbeit mit Vergnügen verbinden.^[9][8]

Word family

• verbindlich
• Verbindung
• Verband

Related words

• entbinden
• binden
• Bund
• Band
• Binde
• English bind

Usage notes

Jemandem verbunden sein is a polite way of saying that one is obliged or grateful to someone.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 25, 115
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 124
5. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
6. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
7. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org