verhindern

Forms

verhindern (third-person singular present verhindert, past tense verhinderte, past participle verhindert, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German verhindern, inherited from Old High German firhintaren (“to cheat, defraud, withhold”): the prefix ver- added to hindern.^[1][2][3] The Grimms' dictionary notes that the prefix only strengthens the meaning, and that the construction is the same as with the simple verb.^[3]

The simple verb is Middle High German hindern, Old High German hintaren, derived from hinter, like Old English hindrian and Old Norse hindra, continued in Dutch hinderen and English hinder; it meant “to put behind, hold back”.^[4][5] The same pattern gave äußern from außer and fordern from vorder.^[5] The preposition goes back to Proto-Germanic *hinder, also in Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌽𐌳𐌰𐍂 (hindar, “behind, beyond”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German firhintaren is first recorded in glosses of the second quarter of the 9th century, meaning “to cheat, impair, embezzle, withhold”.^[7][2] The Grimms' dictionary explains this sense, rendering Latin fraudare, as “to bring secretly behind oneself”, and notes that it is not found later.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense “to push someone or something behind oneself” is rare; common from Middle High German on is “to hold someone back, to disturb in carrying something out”, glossing Latin impedire.^[3] In Early New High German it came to mean “to block, not let something happen”.^[2] Luther and his contemporaries used it with a personal object and the genitive of the thing one is kept from, and Maaler's dictionary has durch kranckheit verhinderet werden (“to be kept back by illness”).^[3] Kirchhof uses it for “to place behind another, put at a disadvantage”.^[3]

Adelung defined it as hindern with an intensifying prefix: to cause something not to happen, or someone not to accomplish something.^[9] The sense “to hinder someone” lasted into the 19th century (Goethe, Büchner) but is now obsolete.^[8]

Timeline

• 9th century – Old High German firhintaren in glosses.^[7]
• 16th century – Luther uses it for “to hold back, hinder”.^[3]
• 1793 – Adelung: “to cause something not to happen”.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To prevent, to stop something from happening or someone from doing something: einen Unfall verhindern.^[8][1]
2. (obsolete) To hinder someone.^[8]

Related words

• hindern
• behindern
• Hindernis
• hinter

Usage notes

Verhindert sein is to be unable to come, for work, illness or other reasons.^[8] Ein verhinderter … (colloquial) is someone with the inclination and talent for a career who never took it up: ein verhinderter Schauspieler.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d e f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 569
4. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 416
5. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 417
7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf