wegen
Pronunciation
- /ˈveːɡən/, /ˈveːɡŋ̩/[1]
Forms
wegen (preposition with the genitive, colloquially the dative; also placed after the noun)[2][1]
Etymology
It is a shortening: inherited from Middle High German von wegen (“on the part of”) had a genitive between the preposition and the noun;[3][4][5] wegen is the dative plural of wec, the ancestor of Weg, used here in the sense “side, direction”, which it had in Central German and Middle Low German.[4][6][7][1] Kluge explains it by phrases meaning “from all sides”.[3] The same construction is Middle Low German van wegen and Middle Dutch van wegen;[4][3] Pfeifer thinks the shortened form may have entered the chancery language from Middle Low German, and Kluge notes that the word spread from the north of the German area to the south.[4][3] Old Norse vegna with a genitive was probably borrowed from Low German, and modern Dutch wegens, Swedish vägnar and Icelandic vegna are its counterparts.[3]
Kluge also considers a quite different source, the root Proto-Indo-European *wek- (“to wish, want”), comparing an Old Persian phrase meaning “by the will of”; he finds this semantically very attractive, but it would mean that an isolated word was later adapted to the noun.[3]
The noun itself, Old High German weg, Proto-Germanic *wegaz, belongs with bewegen to the root Proto-Indo-European *weǵʰ- (“to move, carry, travel”).[4][8]
Earliest recorded meaning
The full phrase von … wegen “on the part of” is recorded in the 13th century, as in von unser beider wegen “on behalf of both of us”.[4] The short form wegen is first recorded in 1369, according to Paul;[5][4] Pfeifer dates it to the second half of the 14th century.[5][4]
Semantic evolution
From “on the part of, in the name of” the preposition came to name the cause or the person on whose account something happens.[5][4] It normally governs the genitive, but the dative is common in regional and colloquial speech and occurs in Goethe (wegen diesem … Beistand) and Schiller (wegen den Anwesenden); Berlin speech even has the accusative, as in Fontane.[5][2]
With pronouns it forms compounds such as meinetwegen (from older von meinen Wegen), seinetwegen, deswegen and weswegen;[5] derowegen and dieserwegen are obsolete.[5] Meinetwegen has become a colloquial “for all I care, fine by me”.[5][2] The colloquial exclamation von wegen! rejects what someone has just said.[2]
Timeline
- 13th century – The phrase von … wegen is used with an enclosed genitive.[4]
- 1369 – First record of the shortened preposition wegen.[5]
- Late 18th century – Goethe and Schiller use wegen with the dative.[5]
Meanings
Preposition
- (with the genitive; colloquially the dative) because of, owing to: wegen des Streiks.[2][1]
- concerning, about: Ich rufe wegen der Wohnung an.[2][1]
- For the sake of: Sie blieb wegen der Kinder.[2]
Word family
- deswegen
- weswegen
- meinetwegen
- seinetwegen
- derentwegen
Related words
References
- ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e f g Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
- ^ a b c d e f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 975
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
- ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
- ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
- ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill