versprechen

Forms

versprechen (class 4 strong, third-person singular present verspricht, past tense versprach, past participle versprochen, past subjunctive verspräche, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German versprechen, inherited from Old High German firsprehhan (“to deny, reject; to defend”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *frasprekan, formed with the prefix ver- from sprechen.^[1][2][3] Like the simple verb it belongs to West Germanic only: the same compound is Old English forspecan, without /r/, Middle Low German vorspreken and Middle Dutch verspreken.^[4] Old High German also had furisprehhan “to speak for”, with the prefix für, whose sense partly merged with it.^[5][4]

The simple verb is sprehhan, Proto-West Germanic *sprekan (“to speak”), beside forms without /r/ in Old Saxon spekan and Old English specan, whence English speak.^[3][6] Kluge finds the comparisons outside Germanic too far apart in meaning, and allows at most an expressive word related to Old Norse spraka (“to crackle”).^[3] Pfeifer groups it with words for crackling and bursting under Proto-Indo-European *(s)p(h)ereg-, an extension of a root meaning “to jerk, kick”, and leaves the forms with and without /r/ unexplained.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German firsprehhan is first found in Otfrid (863–871), meaning “to deny, reject, refuse”, and with a reflexive pronoun “to justify oneself”.^[2][7] Notker has furisprechan in the sense “to defend”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German and still in Early New High German the verb meant “to speak against, deny, reject”: in Luther's Mark 7:2 the Pharisees versprachen the disciples who ate with unwashed hands.^[5] Until the 18th century it also meant “to blame, slander”, and Stieler in 1691 records eine Buchse versprechen “to bewitch a gun”.^[5] The reflexive “to make a slip of the tongue” is already Middle High German, used by Wolfram;^[5] Freud later wrote about such slips.^[5] The sense “to vouch for, defend someone” lived on in south-western German, as in Gotthelf.^[5]

The main modern sense, “to commit oneself to do something for another”, is defined by Adelung and used by Lessing, Schiller and Kant (1786).^[5] Promising someone a thing, with the accusative, is found from Luther on.^[5] The noun Versprechen came into use in the 16th century and replaced Versprechnis and Verspruch; Versprechungen now serves as its plural.^[8]

Timeline

• 863–871 – Otfrid uses Old High German firsprehhan “to deny, reject”.^[2]
• Early 11th century – Notker uses furisprechan “to defend”.^[5]
• 16th century – The noun Versprechen comes into use.^[8]
• 1691 – Stieler records versprechen “to bewitch”.^[5]
• 1786 – Kant discusses the promise made with no intention of keeping it in the Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To make a slip of the tongue, to say something other than one meant: Der Sprecher war müde und versprach sich zweimal.^[9][1]
2. To promise, to undertake to do something: Er hat versprochen, morgen anzurufen.^[9][1]
3. To promise to give something: Sie versprach ihm ihre Hilfe.^[9]
4. (dated) To betroth.^[9]
5. With zu and an infinitive: to give reason to expect: Der Abend verspricht lustig zu werden.^[9][10]
6. To lead one to expect: Die dunklen Wolken versprachen nichts Gutes.^[9][10]
7. (reflexive, with dative) To expect or hope for something from: Was versprichst du dir von dem Treffen?^[9][1]

Word family

• Versprechen
• Versprechung
• Versprecher
• vielversprechend

Related words

• sprechen
• Sprache
• Spruch
• English speak

Usage notes

Hoch und heilig versprechen is “to promise solemnly”.^[9] The adjective vielversprechend “promising” comes from the sense “to give reason to expect”.^[1][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
3. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 871
4. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 1448
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 307
8. ^ a b Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 1481
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
10. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org