Etymologically
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vergessen

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Pronunciation

  • /fɛɐ̯ˈɡɛsən/[1]

Forms

vergessen (class 5 strong, third-person singular present vergisst, past tense vergaß, past participle vergessen, past subjunctive vergäße, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vergezzen, inherited from Old High German firgezzan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fragetan.[2][1][3] It is a West Germanic formation with the prefix ver-, found also in Old Saxon fargetan, Old English forgietan and English forget.[2][3] The base is a verb Proto-Germanic *getaną (“to get, obtain”), recorded with other prefixes in Gothic 𐌱𐌹𐌲𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (bigitan, “to find”), begietan and Old High German bigezzan (“to obtain, find”), and alone in Old Norse geta (“to get, reach”), the source of get.[2][3][4] Since the prefix reverses the sense, the verb first meant “to lose (from one's mind)”.[2][3]

Outside Germanic, Pfeifer and Duden 7 compare Latin prehendō (“to seize”) and praeda (“booty”), and Ancient Greek χανδάνω (khandánō, “to hold, contain”), and set up a root Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to seize, grasp”).[3][4] Kluge thinks it is probably the root that appears with a nasal in beginnen.[2] Old High German also had irgezzan (“to forget”), whose causative is the source of ergötzen.[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates firgezzan to the 9th century and the variant irgezzan to the 8th.[2] Köbler records firgezzan in Notker, about 1000, and in Williram, meaning “to forget”.[5] Middle High German vergezzen meant “to lose from one's thoughts” and, reflexively, “to fall into oblivion”.[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb originally took the genitive, as still in Lessing's Sie vergessen Ihrer Blessuren and Hölty's Und des Harms vergessen! “and forget sorrow”; the accusative, found now and then in Luther, became usual in the 18th century, and the genitive remains in Vergissmeinnicht.[6] It is used both for losing something from memory altogether and for not thinking of it at the right time, as in leaving an object behind.[6] In southern Germany and especially Austria people say colloquially auf etwas vergessen.[6][7] The reflexive sich vergessen means “to lose one's self-control”.[6][3] Regional ich bin's vergessen for ich habe es vergessen is a trace of the verb's older intransitive use.[6]

Derivatives are Vergessenheit, Middle High German vergezzenheit, and vergesslich, whose shorter form dates from the 15th century, with Vergesslichkeit from the 16th.[4]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German irgezzan is recorded.[2]
  • 9th century – firgezzan is first recorded.[2][3]
  • c. 1000 – Notker uses firgezzan.[5]
  • 15th century – The short form vergesslich appears.[4]
  • 18th century – The accusative object becomes usual instead of the genitive.[6]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To forget, to lose from memory; to be unable to remember: Ich habe ihre Telefonnummer vergessen.[7][1]
  2. To stop thinking of someone or something; to fail to do something: Er hat vergessen, die Blumen zu gießen.[7][1]
  3. To leave something behind by mistake: Sie hat ihre Handschuhe im Bus vergessen.[7][1]
  4. (reflexive) sich vergessen: to lose one's self-control.[3][6]
  5. (southern Germany, Austria) auf etwas vergessen: not to think of something.[7][6]
  6. (colloquial) Das kannst du vergessen: that is no longer relevant; it won't happen.[7]

Adjective

  1. forgotten: ein vergessener Maler.[1][7]

Word family

  • Vergessenheit
  • vergesslich
  • Vergesslichkeit
  • unvergesslich
  • Vergissmeinnicht
  • selbstvergessen

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 952
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 897
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag