wahr

Forms

wahr (strong nominative masculine singular wahrer, comparative wahrer, superlative am wahrsten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German wār, inherited from Old High German wār, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wār, inherited from Proto-Germanic *wēraz.^[2][1][3] Beside it stood a j-stem wāri, wære.^[3][1] The same word is Old Saxon wār, Dutch waar, Old Frisian wēr and Old English wǣr.^[2][3] Outside Germanic it matches Latin vērus (“true”) and Old Irish fír (“true”).^[2][3][4]

Kluge takes the adjective as formed to an old noun meaning “trust, faith, assent”, seen in Ancient Greek ἦρα (êra, “favour”), in Proto-Germanic *wērō (“promise, pledge, treaty”) (wāra (“faith, protection”), wǣr, Old Norse várar (“vows”)) and in Old Church Slavonic вѣра (věra, “faith, trust”).^[2][3] That noun belongs to the verbal root of wahren, “to heed”; the adjective first meant “trustworthy”.^[2][3][5] Pfeifer and Duden 7 give the root as “to show favour, friendliness”, and connect gewähren and the second part of albern with it.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Kluge dates wār to the 8th century;^[2][6] Köbler finds it in glosses and in the Old High German Isidor of the end of the 8th century.^[2][6] Its Middle High German senses were “true, truthful, real, certain, genuine, right”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “trustworthy” the word came to mean “real, certain, genuine”.^[5] Its main use is of statements that agree with the facts, and of what is still to come, which may wahr werden or be made true (wahr machen); es nicht wahrhaben wollen is to refuse to admit it.^[5] Placed before a noun it marks something as real, not just claimed (ein wahrer Freund), and it can intensify, as in eine wahre Flut von Briefen.^[5][7] Of people it meant “sincere”, as in Schiller.^[5]

The neuter was used as a noun in Old and Middle High German, and traces of this survive in wahrsagen and zwar;^[5] für war gave fürwahr.^[5] Wahrheit is recorded from the 9th century and wahrhaft from the 8th.^[3] wahrscheinlich appears in the 17th century, probably after Dutch waarschijnlijk, itself a rendering of Latin vērisimilis.^[4]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German wār and wārhaft are recorded.^[2][3]
• 9th century – wārheit “truth” is recorded.^[3]
• 15th century – Wahrsager “fortune-teller” is formed.^[3]
• 17th century – wahrscheinlich appears.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. true, agreeing with the facts; really happened, not invented: Der Film erzählt eine wahre Geschichte.^[7][1] nicht wahr?: isn't it?, don't you think?^[7]
2. Real, actual: Den wahren Grund hat er nie verraten.^[7]
3. Genuine, sincere, deserving its name: eine wahre Freundin.^[7][1]
4. Used to intensify: a real, a downright: ein wahres Chaos.^[5]

Word family

• Wahrheit
• wahrhaft
• wahrhaftig
• wahrlich
• wahrsagen
• Wahrsager
• wahrscheinlich
• wahrhaben
• fürwahr
• bewähren

Related words

• wahren
• gewähren
• zwar
• Latin vērus

Usage notes

Fixed phrases are so wahr ich lebe and the oath formula so wahr mir Gott helfe, and the saying was wahr ist, muss wahr bleiben.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 967
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 917
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag