weder

Forms

weder^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German weder, inherited from Old High German wedar (“which of two”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hwaþar, inherited from Proto-Germanic *hwaþeraz (“which of two”), originally the neuter of an interrogative pronoun.^[2][3][1] The same pronoun is Old Saxon hweðar and Old English hwæþer, which became English whether; with another vowel grade it is Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌸𐌰𐍂 (ƕaþar) and Old Norse hvárr.^[2][3][4] Outside Germanic it corresponds to Sanskrit कतर (katará), Ancient Greek πότερος (póteros), Lithuanian katràs and Russian который (kotóryj, “which”), all from Proto-Indo-European *kʷóteros (“which of two”), formed with a contrastive suffix on the pronoun stem of wer.^[2][3][5][1]

The pronoun could also be indefinite, “whichever of two”.^[2] Old High German nihwedar meant “neither of the two”, and when it was paired with noh (“nor”) it became a conjunction.^[3][5][6] Middle High German enweder could still be used in this way, but the negative particle was then dropped, leaving the modern pair.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German (h)wedar is recorded from about 765 in glosses, and in the Hildebrandslied, Isidor, Muspilli, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, as a pronoun “who, which (of two)” and a conjunction “whether”;^[7][8] ne wedar … noh already meant “neither … nor”.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Until the early 16th century weder introduced direct double questions, as in Walther von der Vogelweide's wedr ist ez übel, od ist ez guot? “which is it, bad or good?”^[9][3] In Central and Northern German the form wider was common, and Luther used it until about 1530 before replacing it with weder.^[10]

Older writers also paired weder … weder or weder … oder: Goethe's Gretchen says bin weder Fräulein, weder schön.^[9][3] From the second half of the 15th century to the 17th, especially in Alemannic and Swabian, weder also served as “than” after a comparative, as in Luther's Weisheit ist besser weder Gold; it survives in dialects.^[9][3]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German wedar in glosses.^[7]
• Middle High German – weder … noch without the negative particle.^[3]
• Second half of the 15th century – weder “than” after comparatives.^[3][9]
• c. 1530 – Luther replaces wider with weder.^[10]
• Early 16th century – Last use to introduce direct questions.^[9]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. Only in weder … noch: neither … nor: Sie trinkt weder Kaffee noch Tee.^[6][1]
2. (colloquial) Weder noch: neither the one nor the other, as a reply.^[6]

Related words

• entweder
• jeder
• wer
• English whether

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 974
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 923
6. ^ a b c Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 375
9. ^ a b c d e 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 Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 27, 2834