von

Forms

von^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German von, inherited from Old High German fona, beside the rarer northern fana.^[2][1][3] The preposition is found only in the continental West Germanic languages: Old Saxon fan, Middle Low German van, Old Dutch fan, Dutch van and Old Frisian fon.^[3][4][2] Gothic, Old English and Old Norse lack it and use other words, such as Gothic 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌼 (fram) and Old English fram.^[4][3][5]

The EWA traces the forms ending in a vowel to Proto-West Germanic *fanē and those ending in a consonant to a newer *fana, which took its final vowel from the preposition Proto-Germanic *ana (“on”).^[3] In this view the Old High German /o/ is a dulling of the unstressed /a/, so that no separate form with /u/ has to be assumed.^[3] Wiktionary leaves both possibilities open: an original Proto-Germanic *funē comparable with Sanskrit पुनर् (púnar, “back, again”), or an unstressed form of the West Germanic word.^[1]

The older dictionaries call its origin dark,^[5][4] and Pfeifer and Duden still describe it as unexplained.^[2][6] Kroonen derives *fanē from Proto-Indo-European *h₂po-neh₁, an old directional case of the root of ab with the ablative suffix *-neh₁, and compares Lithuanian pa-, Old Church Slavonic по (po), Russian по (po, “after, on, along”) and Albanian pa (“without”).^[7][2] Pfeifer and Duden likewise think of the zero grade of Proto-Indo-European *apo (“off, away”), also seen in the Latin prefix po- of positus (“placed”),^[2][6] and Pfeifer adds that an /o/ older than Germanic would point to a form *pu, which could be compared with the Sanskrit adverb and with Ancient Greek πύματος (púmatos, “last, outermost”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German fona is recorded from the 8th century, first in glosses of about 765, and then in nearly every text: the Isidor translation, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[2][8][4] It already had a wide range of senses: “from, out of, away from, since”, but also “through, by, because of, about”.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

In Middle High German, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch the preposition was often placed after its noun and came close to an adverb meaning “away”.^[2] Northern colloquial German keeps this use when it splits davon and wovon, putting von at the end of the clause.^[2] The coarse northern colloquial language also uses it with the accusative, and Fontane wrote vons for von das.^[5] In the written language only the merger with the dative article became established, as vom.^[5]

Paul explains the use for a person's place of origin, er ist von Stuttgart, which is now southern beside northern aus.^[10] It was once usual with the names of countries as well, hence titles such as König von Preußen.^[10] This is the source of von as the mark of nobility, which in the old nobility always names the family's place of origin.^[10] The noble particle has been borrowed into English, in names such as Paul von Hindenburg, and into Modern Hebrew.^[11]

In modern German von also replaces the genitive and marks the agent of the passive.^[1][12] Two adverbs grew out of fixed phrases with old dative plurals: vonnöten, with Not, from the 16th century, and vonstatten, with Statt, from the 18th century, earlier written von Statten.^[2]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German fona and the rarer fana are recorded.^[2][8]
• 1060–1065 – Middle High German von appears in Williram's commentary on the Song of Songs.^[13]
• 16th century – von nöten sein appears, later written vonnöten.^[2]
• 17th century – von Statten gehen appears.^[2]
• 18th century – The adverb is written together as vonstatten.^[2]

Meanings

Preposition

1. from: marks the starting point in space: von links, der Bus kommt von Bremen.^[12][1]
2. Marks separation or removal: den Teller vom Tisch nehmen.^[12]
3. Marks a starting point in time, often with an or ab: von morgen an.^[12]
4. of: names the whole from which a part is taken: zwei von uns.^[12]
5. Belonging to, of, often replacing the genitive: die Mutter von Paul.^[1]
6. by: marks the agent in the passive voice.^[1]
7. About, of (a topic): von etwas erzählen.^[1]
8. Placed before a family name as the mark of nobility.^[14][10]

Word family

• vom
• davon
• wovon
• hiervon
• voneinander
• vonnöten
• vonstatten

Related words

• ab

Usage notes

Von mir aus is colloquial for “as far as I'm concerned, I don't mind”.^[12] Wiktionary records the abbreviation v., used especially in noble names.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d e f Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 466
4. ^ a b c d Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch (1952–), founded by Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt and Theodor Frings, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag / De Gruyter; online awb.saw-leipzig.de, p. 3, 1069
5. ^ a b c d Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 26, 737
6. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 912
7. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 109
10. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
11. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
12. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
14. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org