verhindern
Pronunciation
- /fɛɐ̯ˈhɪndɐn/[1]
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
- To prevent, to stop something from happening or someone from doing something: einen Unfall verhindern.[8][1]
- (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
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 416
- ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
- ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 417
- ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
- ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
- ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf