verschieden

Forms

verschieden (strong nominative masculine singular verschiedener, comparative verschiedener or verschiedner, superlative am verschiedensten)^[1]

Etymology

It is the past participle of verscheiden, used as an adjective.^[2][3][4] In the sense “dead” it is the participle of the verb in its surviving sense “to die”, literally “to go away”; in the sense “different” it belongs to the older, wider sense “to go away, separate oneself”, so that it first meant “separated”.^[2][3] The verb is Middle High German verscheiden (“to go away, vanish, die”), formed from scheiden.^[4][5]

Adelung explains it as the participle of an old transitive use of the verb, “to separate, divide”, still used in Low German for settling disputing parties;^[6][7] Paul agrees.^[6][7] The Grimms' dictionary notes that the older participle had the vowel of the infinitive and that the adjective cannot be found in the Middle Ages or in older New High German.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kaspar Stieler is the first to list the adjective, in 1691, still explaining it from the verb verscheiden: verschiedene leute “different people”, verschiedene sachen “various things”.^[8][7] Pfeifer and the Duden date both the sense “different” and the plural sense “several” to the second half of the 17th century.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

From “unlike, different”, plural use led to “some, several”, so that the word came close to an indefinite pronoun.^[3][7] Kramer in 1719 and Steinbach in 1725 list it.^[8] From then on it is regular in the dictionaries.^[8] Adelung recorded both uses around 1800 and noted that in the sense “several” it had no singular.^[6]

The sense “deceased”, from verscheiden “to die”, is found from the 18th century and is now dated.^[3][1] The adverb verschiedentlich meant “in different ways” in Klopstock and Lessing, but now means “on several occasions”.^[7]

Timeline

• 1691 – Stieler records verschieden “different”.^[8][7]
• Second half of the 17th century – The plural sense “several” appears.^[3]
• 1719 – Kramer's dictionary lists it.^[8]
• 18th century – The sense “deceased” and Verschiedenheit appear.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Different, unlike: verschiedener Meinung sein “to disagree”;^[9][1] verschieden von “different from”.^[9][1]
2. In the plural: Several, various: verschiedene Gäste.^[9][1]
3. As a noun, Verschiedenes: various things, miscellany.^[9][1]
4. (dated) Deceased.^[1][10]

Adverb

1. Differently, in different ways.^[1][9]

Word family

• Verschiedenheit
• verschiedentlich
• Verschiedenes

Related words

• scheiden
• Unterschied

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 956
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
5. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
6. ^ a b c Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 1074
9. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org