Etymologically
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verzichten

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Pronunciation

  • /ferˈtsɪçtən/, [fɐˈt͡sɪç.tn̩], [fɛɐ̯-][1]

Forms

verzichten (third-person singular present verzichtet, past tense verzichtete, past participle verzichtet, auxiliary haben)[1]

Etymology

It is a verb formed in the late 18th century from the noun Verzicht “renunciation”, Middle High German verziht.[2][3][1] The noun is an abstract to verzīhen (“to refuse, renounce”), Old High German firzīhan (“to refuse”), the source of verzeihen.[2][4][5] The prefix gave zeihen “to accuse” the opposite sense, roughly “not to claim for oneself”, and this general meaning survives in the noun, while the verb narrowed to “to forgive”.[5] That verb continues Proto-Germanic *tīhaną, from Proto-Indo-European *deiḱ- (“to show”), the root of Latin dīcō (“to say”) and Ancient Greek δείκνυμι (deíknumi, “to show”).[6][2]

Because Middle Low German vortichten and Middle Dutch vertichten are recorded much earlier (15th century), Wiktionary thinks the High German verb was probably modelled on them.[1] The Grimms' dictionary considers this but finds the evidence too scanty to decide.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Campe's dictionary is the first to list verzichten “to make or perform renunciation”, and Paul dates it to 1785.[7][8] A single earlier variant reading, verzichtet sich des der sun nit in a 15th-century copy of the Kaiserrecht of 1372, follows the older construction of sich verzeihen with the genitive and is not connected with the modern use.[7]

Semantic evolution

Verzichten took over the meaning of reflexive sich (einer Sache) verzeihen “to give something up”, which was usual until the 18th century, as in Paul Gerhardt's es verzeiht sich aller Freuden, and also replaced phrases such as Verzicht tun and Verzicht leisten.[8][7][2] The new verb is construed with auf and the accusative, following a construction of the older verb, and is used much more often of activities; the religious and ascetic uses of sich verzeihen were not taken over.[7] Dahlmann's transitive verzichtete der herzog sogar sein herzogthum (1840) is unusual.[7] The dialect dictionaries list the word as taken from the standard language, and the Swabian dictionary calls it “hardly popular”.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1173 – Middle High German verziht “renunciation”.[9]
  • 15th century – Middle Dutch vertichten is recorded.[7][1]
  • 1785 – First record of verzichten.[8]
  • 1811 – Campe's dictionary lists the verb.[7]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To renounce, give up a claim or right: auf das Erbe verzichten, zugunsten der Schwester verzichten.[10][1]
  2. To do without, forgo: auf Zucker verzichten, auf jemandes Hilfe nicht verzichten können.[10][1]
  3. To refrain from: auf eine Antwort verzichten.[10][1]

Word family

  • verzichtbar
  • Verzichter
  • verzeihen
  • Verzicht
  • zeihen

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  3. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  4. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 906
  5. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 958
  6. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1005
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 25, 2587
  8. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag