weiß

Forms

weiß (strong nominative masculine singular weißer, comparative weißer, superlative am weißesten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German wīz, inherited from Old High German wīz, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hwīt, inherited from Proto-Germanic *hwītaz (“white”).^[2][3][1] The same adjective is Old Saxon hwīt, Gothic 𐍈𐌴𐌹𐍄𐍃 (hweits), Old Norse hvítr, Old English hwīt and Old Frisian hwīt, and today Dutch wit, English white and Swedish vit.^[2][3][4] Its stem corresponds to Proto-Indo-European *ḱweyt- (“to shine, be bright, be white”), found in Sanskrit श्वेत (śvetá, “white, bright”), Lithuanian šviẽsti (“to shine”) and Old Church Slavonic свьтѣти (svĭtěti, “to shine”) and свѣтъ (světŭ, “light”).^[2][3][1] Pfeifer and the Duden take it as an extension of Proto-Indo-European *ḱwey- (“to shine”), and the Duden relates Weizen to the same root.^[3][5]

The Germanic final consonant does not match the Indo-European one, and the forms with short vowel and double ⟨t⟩ (Middle Low German wit, Middle Dutch wit) are a further problem.^[2][3] Lühr derives the ⟨t⟩ from an assimilated ⟨-tn-⟩, comparing a Sanskrit adjective “bright”, but Kluge holds the geminated forms to be late and secondary.^[2] Kroonen reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *ḱuit-nó- with Kluge's law and takes the short-vowelled Frisian and Dutch forms from a zero grade, perhaps of an old ablauting adjective.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German (h)wīz is recorded in the Hildebrandslied (first half of the 8th century?) and in glosses of the third quarter of the 8th century, and then in Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram.^[6][7] It meant “white, shining, blond”.^[6][7] Paul suggests that its first sense was “shining”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Like other colour words, weiß has expressed relative brightness as well as the pure colour since Old High German: white silver, white steel, white wine, white skin, and “colourless” in weiße Blutkörperchen.^[8] Adelung records around 1800 the senses “blank” (weißes Papier, and schwarz auf weiß “in writing”), “clean” (weiße Wäsche) and “lighter than others of its kind”, as in white bread made from wheat and white wine.^[9]

The silversmiths' weiß sieden or weiß brennen, cleaning silver, gave the old phrase sich weiß brennen wollen “to protest one's innocence”.^[9][8] Weiße Kragen for office workers (1968) follows English white-collar.^[8] In Berlin eine Weiße is a glass of Weißbier, and Berliner Weiße mit Schuss is wheat beer with raspberry syrup.^[8] English took over weiss beer, and Hebrew Waiswurst.^[10]

Timeline

• First half of the 8th century? – wīz in the Hildebrandslied.^[6]
• Third quarter of the 8th century – wīz in Old High German glosses.^[6]
• 15th century – Weißkohl “white cabbage” is recorded.^[8]
• 16th century – Weißbier and Weißbinder “house painter” appear.^[8]
• 1793 – Adelung records sich weiß brennen wollen “to plead innocence”.^[9]
• 1968 – weiße Kragen “white-collar workers”, after English.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. white, of the brightest colour, like snow.^[11][1]
2. Pale, pallid: Sie wurde weiß vor Schreck.^[12]
3. Light-coloured as opposed to darker kinds: weißer Wein, weißes Brot.^[9][8]
4. Belonging to the light-skinned European type.^[12]
5. Blank, not written on: ein weißes Blatt.^[9]

Word family

• Weiß
• weißen
• weißeln
• Weißbier
• Weißwein
• Weißkohl
• Weißwurst
• Weißling
• Eiweiß
• kalkweiß

Related words

• Weizen
• English white

Usage notes

The same spelling weiß is also the first and third person singular present of wissen “to know”, which has its own origin.^[11] Schwarz auf weiß means “in writing”, and^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 980
3. ^ a b c d e 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 Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 926
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 396
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
9. ^ a b c d e f Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
10. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
11. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
12. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org