Etymologically
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verweisen

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verweisen1 to rebuke

Pronunciation

  • /fɛɐ̯ˈvaɪ̯zn̩/[1]

Forms

verweisen (class 1 strong, third-person singular present verweist, past tense verwies, past participle verwiesen, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to rebuke” is inherited from Middle High German verwīzen, inherited from Old High German firwīzan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *frawītan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *frawītaną (“to punish, scold”).[2][3][1] It corresponds to Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐍅𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (fraweitan, “to do justice, avenge”), Middle Low German vorwīten and Dutch verwijten (“to reproach”), and is a prefixed form of a strong verb seen in Old High German wīzan, Middle High German wīzen (“to notice, reproach, punish”), Old Saxon wītan, Old English wītan (“to reproach”) and Old Norse víta (“to punish”), beside the noun wīzi (“punishment”).[2][3]

Its further origin is unclear.[3] Kluge compares, perhaps, Latin vindex (“guarantor, protector, avenger”), and probably Proto-Indo-European *weiə- (“to pursue, avenge”).[2] Pfeifer and Duden report the usual connection with *u̯eid- (“to see”), the root of wissen: “to notice a fault” would have become “to reproach”, as in animadvertō (“to notice; to punish”).[3][4] Seebold instead proposed a dental extension of the root of “to go after, pursue”.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German firwīzan is first recorded in glosses of 790, and then in Notker and Otfrid, meaning “to reproach, blame, revile”.[5] Middle High German verwīzen “to reproach with punishment or blame” is common, for example in the Kaiserchronik (about 1150) and the Nibelungenlied.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Since the 15th century the verb has coincided in form with verwīsen “to refer, send away”; the loss of the simple verb wīzen made people take it as a compound of weisen.[4][8] Its meaning stayed as in Old and Middle High German, with a note of authority: Schiller has verwies dem Volke in sanften Worten sein gewaltsames Beginnen (“gently rebuked the people for their violent action”).[9] It is now elevated in style.[9][10]

The noun Verweis “reprimand” is a back-formation, late Middle High German verwīʒ; in modern use it is an official reprimand, a disciplinary measure.[3][9]

Timeline

  • 790 – Old High German firwīzan appears in glosses.[5]
  • about 1150 – Middle High German verwīzen in the Kaiserchronik.[6]
  • late Middle High German – The noun verwīʒ “rebuke” is formed.[3][4]
  • 15th century – The verb merges in form with verweisen “to refer”.[4][10]
  • 1827 – verweisend “reproving” is recorded as an adjective.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (elevated) To reproach someone for something: Die Großmutter verwies dem Jungen seine Frechheit.[10][11]
  2. (elevated) To forbid someone a behaviour.[10]
  3. (elevated) To rebuke, reprimand.[10][11]

Word family

  • Verweis

verweisen2 to refer, to expel

Pronunciation

  • /fɛɐ̯ˈvaɪ̯zn̩/[1]

Forms

verweisen (class 1 strong, third-person singular present verweist, past tense verwies, past participle verwiesen, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

The verb meaning “to refer, send away” is inherited from Middle High German verwīsen, formed with the prefix ver- from wīsen, the ancestor of weisen “to show, point”.[4][9][6] That verb is Old High German wīsen and Old Saxon wīsian, from Proto-Germanic *wīsijaną, and the same verb is Old Norse vísa, Old English wīsan and Old Frisian wīsa.[12] Kluge connects it with Proto-Indo-European *weid- (“to appear, see, know”), the root of wissen, but finds the details of the formation unclear;[12][13] Duden derives it from the adjective weise, which Kluge thinks unlikely.[12][13] The Grimms' dictionary notes that the verb meaning “to refer” is related through this root to the one meaning “to rebuke”.[8]

The simple verb was weak until the 16th century, and the prefixed verb, weak at first too, went over to strong inflection.[12][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Middle High German verwīsen meant “to send away, banish, expel”, “to disinherit a child” and also “to direct wrongly, lead astray”.[7][6] Köbler's earliest text is the Himmelreich (second half of the 12th century), where the eternal light drives away the shadow of the night.[6][7]

Semantic evolution

Its usual senses are “to send away”, as in Schiller's wir selbst wurden des Landes verwiesen (“we ourselves were banished from the country”), and “to direct to another place or person”.[9] The noun Verweis meant “assignment” until the 15th century and then went out of use; from about 1850 it returned as “cross-reference”, beside Verweisung.[9] In ball games a player sent off is des Platzes verwiesen, given a Platzverweis.[10]

Timeline

  • second half of the 12th century – Middle High German verwīsen in the Himmelreich.[6]
  • 15th century – The noun Verweis “assignment” goes out of use.[9]
  • 15th century – The verb merges in form with verweisen “to rebuke”.[4]
  • about 1850 – Verweis returns as “cross-reference”.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To refer to something, point it out: Der Autor verweist auf eine ältere Untersuchung.[10][1][11]
  2. To send someone to another person or office: Man verwies mich an die Personalabteilung.[10][11]
  3. (law) To refer a case to another court.[10]
  4. To expel, to send away from a place: jemanden des Landes verweisen;[10][1] Der Schiedsrichter verwies den Torwart vom Platz.[10][1]
  5. To direct someone to go to a certain place.[10]

Word family

  • Verweisung
  • Platzverweis

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 958
  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 d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 905
  5. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b c Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 312
  8. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 2184
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  11. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
  12. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 980
  13. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 926