verlieren

Forms

verlieren (class 2 strong, third-person singular present verliert, past tense verlor, past participle verloren, past subjunctive verlöre, auxiliary haben)^[1] Middle High German had verliesen with /s/ in the present and the past singular and /r/ in the past plural verlurn and the participle verlorn (grammatical change); in Early New High German the r spread to all forms.^[2][3] The older s survives in Verlies and Verlust.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German verliesen, inherited from Old High German firliosan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fraleusan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *fraleusaną (“to lose”), formed with the prefix *fra- on a strong verb Proto-Germanic *leusaną that is not recorded early on its own.^[5][1] The same verb is Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍃𐌰𐌽 (fraliusan), Old Saxon farliosan, Old Frisian forliāsa and Old English forlēosan, whose participle gave English forlorn.^[5][2] The simple verb survives in Old English as lēosan and in English lose, according to the Grimms' dictionary.^[6]

It is an s-extension, found only in Germanic, of Proto-Indo-European *leu- (“to loosen, cut off, separate”), also found in Ancient Greek λύω (lúō, “I loosen, set free”), Latin luō (“to pay, atone”) and solvō (“to loosen, dissolve”).^[5][2][7] The adjective los and the nouns Verlies and Verlust belong to the same root.^[5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German firliosan is recorded from the glosses of 765 and in the Benediktinerregel, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[8] The EWA gives its senses as “to lose, let fall, let go”, but also “to destroy, ruin, kill” and “to perish”; the participle firloran meant “lost, gone astray, damned”, as in firloran skaf “the lost sheep”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The Middle High German verb still meant “to destroy, bring to ruin” beside “to lose, gamble away, give up”.^[10][9] Paul separates a narrow sense, letting fall unnoticed something one carries (a hat, a purse), from the wide sense opposed to gewinnen and behalten, which can apply to almost anything one has: wealth, life, honour, patience or a friend.^[3] From the narrow sense come aus den Augen verlieren, die Spur verlieren and den Kopf verlieren.^[3]

The reflexive sich verlieren “to disappear, fade away” is common in 18th-century literature: a path loses itself in the thicket, and in Goethe one loses oneself in dreams.^[3] Adelung records den Kopf verlieren in the sense “to be beheaded”.^[11] The agent noun Verlierer dates from the 17th century.^[2]

Timeline

• 765 – Old High German firliosan in glosses.^[8]
• 8th century – Kluge's date for the first record.^[5]
• 1077–1081 – Middle High German verliesen in the Annolied.^[10]
• 16th century – verlieren with r in all forms replaces verliesen.^[2][4]
• 17th century – The noun Verlierer is recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lose something one had or carried and not find it again: sie hat ihre Schlüssel verloren.^[12][1]
2. To lose someone through separation or death: er hat früh seinen Vater verloren.^[12]
3. To lose a part of the body, men, time and the like; to shed (leaves, hair): die Birke verliert ihre Blätter.^[12][1]
4. To leak, let something escape: das Auto verliert Öl.^[12]
5. To be defeated in, not win (a game, a battle, a lawsuit): das Spiel verlieren.^[12][1][13]
6. (reflexive) To get lost, lose one's way; to lose oneself in something: sich in Gedanken verlieren.^[12][1]
7. (reflexive) To fade away, gradually disappear: der Weg verlor sich im Wald.^[1][3]

Word family

• Verlierer
• Verlies
• Verlust
• verloren

Related words

• los
• lösen
• English forlorn
• English lose

Usage notes

Irgendwo nichts verloren haben (colloquial) means “to have no business being somewhere”.^[12] The participle verloren is used as an adjective, “lost, forlorn”.^[12][3]

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 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 Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
4. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 954
6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 794
7. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 5, 1354
10. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
11. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org