vertreten

Forms

vertreten (class 5 strong, third-person singular present vertritt, past tense vertrat, past participle vertreten, past subjunctive verträte, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German vertreten, inherited from Old High German firtretan (“to trample down”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fratredan (“to tread upon”), formed with the prefix ver- from treten.^[1][2][3] Old English fortredan (“to trample”) died out early; Danish fortræde and Swedish företräda were taken from German.^[4] Beside the strong verb there was also a weak one, still alive in Upper German.^[4]

The base verb goes back to Proto-West Germanic *tredan (“to tread”), seen in Old English tredan and English tread, beside Proto-Germanic *trudaną in Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (trudan) and Old Norse troða.^[5][6][1] Kluge finds no exact comparison outside Germanic and takes the verb to be probably imitative, like trampeln;^[5] Pfeifer tentatively starts from a participle Proto-Indo-European *druto- of a root Proto-Indo-European *dreu- (“to run, tread”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German firtretan is first recorded in glosses of the end of the 8th century, and then in the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “to trample down, crush; to oppress”.^[2][4] Only this sense is found in Old High German.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The meaning branched out in Middle High German, where vertreten already meant “to take someone's place”.^[4][3] From there came “to intercede for” (in hymns, of Christ before the Father), “to defend a case in court”, “to stand up for a belief” (Leibniz) and “to deputize for someone in office”.^[7] “To represent, stand for” arose only in the 19th century, as when a book represents a genre or a party is fully represented at a meeting.^[7][4]

The older sense “to tread down, wear out by treading” appears in Hartmann von Aue: si vertraten bluomen unde gras (“they trampled flowers and grass”).^[7] From it come sich den Fuß vertreten, to sprain one's foot, and jemandem den Weg vertreten, to block someone's way.^[7] Sich die Beine vertreten, to stretch one's legs, was at first Low German, recorded by Adelung and Campe, and became High German in the 19th century.^[7] The agent noun Vertreter goes back to Middle High German; its use for a commercial traveller is recorded in 1905.^[7][3]

Timeline

• End of the 8th century – Old High German firtretan “to trample down” appears in glosses.^[2]
• Middle High German – The sense “to take someone's place” appears.^[3]
• Second half of the 17th century – The feminine Vertreterin is recorded.^[3]
• 19th century – Sense “to represent, stand for”.^[7]
• 19th century – Sich die Beine vertreten passes from Low German into High German.^[7]
• 1905 – Vertreter is recorded in the sense “sales representative”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stand in for, substitute for someone for a time: Während ihres Urlaubs vertritt sie ein Kollege.^[8][1]
2. To look after someone's interests or rights as their agent: Die Firma wird im Prozess von einem bekannten Anwalt vertreten.^[8]
3. To represent an institution, a firm or a country: Die Läuferin vertritt ihren Verein bei der Meisterschaft.^[8][1]
4. To work as a sales representative for a firm: Er vertritt eine Möbelfirma in Norddeutschland.^[8]
5. (vertreten sein) To be present, to be found among others: Auf der Messe sind viele Aussteller aus Asien vertreten.^[8][9]
6. To hold and defend an opinion or position: Sie vertritt die Ansicht, dass Bildung kostenlos sein sollte.^[8][1]
7. sich die Beine vertreten: to stretch one's legs after sitting for a long time.^[8][1]
8. sich den Fuß vertreten: to sprain one's foot.^[8][1]
9. (dated) jemandem den Weg vertreten: to block someone's way.^[7]

Word family

• Vertreter
• Vertretung
• vertretbar

Related words

• betreten
• zertreten
• treten

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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 d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 872
4. ^ 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, 1982
5. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 929
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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org