wahr
Pronunciation
- /vaːr/, [vaː(ɐ̯)], [vaːʁ][1]
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
- 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]
- Real, actual: Den wahren Grund hat er nie verraten.[7]
- Genuine, sincere, deserving its name: eine wahre Freundin.[7][1]
- 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
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
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 917
- ^ 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
- ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
- ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag