Etymologically
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weil

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Pronunciation

Forms

weil (subordinating conjunction)[1] Middle High German had the fuller die wîle and al die wîle, continued in the older New High German dieweil and alldieweil.[2][3] Forms with a final -e are still found in 1486.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German wîle, shortened from die wîle, inherited from Old High German thiu wīla sō (“as long as”): an accusative of time of the noun that is today Weile, literally “the while that”.[5][2][6] When the linking sō was dropped, the phrase itself became a conjunction, already in Middle High German.[2][3] Parallel phrases are Middle Low German de wīle, Middle Dutch de wīle dat and Old English þā hwīle þe.[2] Dutch wijl (“since, because”) developed in the same way, while English while stayed temporal.[2]

The noun is Old High German wīla, from Proto-West Germanic *hwīlu and Proto-Germanic *hwīlō (“time, period of rest”).[1][7] Wiktionary and Köbler trace it to a root Proto-Indo-European *kʷyeh₁- (“to rest”).[1][7]

The bare form without the article first appears in regions whose dialects had early lost the vowel of the unstressed article, so that the phrase could easily be reduced.[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Old High German phrase thiu wīla sō “as long as”, literally “the time that”, is recorded in the 11th century.[2] Middle High German die wîle (daʒ) meant “as long as, while”.[2][3] The short form weil is recorded from the 15th century, first in Upper German texts: a legal record from Klosters in Graubünden, a Mainz chronicle from before 1484 and a Regensburg song of 1489.[4][3]

Semantic evolution

The conjunction was first temporal, “as long as” and “while”.[5][2] As with während, the expression of simultaneity could take on a contrast; the causal sense then grew out of the same contexts.[5] Pfeifer dates the first causal uses to the 14th century, in Tauler, in clauses where the temporal conjunction also gives a reason.[2] The causal sense has prevailed since the 15th century, while the temporal one stayed in use and receded only in the 18th century.[2][4] Adelung, around 1800, calls the sense “as long as” largely obsolete, kept by poets and in everyday speech.[8] The old meaning survives in the older form of the proverb man muß das Eisen schmieden, weil es warm ist “strike while the iron is hot”.[4]

Recently weil has come to be used, in speech, to open a main clause with the verb in second place, like denn.[4][6] An answer Weil! on its own refuses to give a reason, beside the older Darum!.[4][6]

Timeline

  • 11th century – The Old High German phrase thiu wīla sō “as long as” is recorded.[2]
  • 14th century – Causal uses of die wîle appear, first in Tauler.[2]
  • 15th century – Bare weil appears in Upper German sources; the causal sense becomes the main one.[4][3]
  • 1486 – Forms with a final -e are still recorded.[4]
  • 18th century – The temporal use recedes.[2]

Meanings

Conjunction

  1. because: introduces a clause giving the reason or cause, often stressed: Sie blieb zu Hause, weil ihr Kind Fieber hatte.[6][1]
  2. Introduces a shortened clause or an attribute giving a reason: ein billiges, weil gebrauchtes Fahrrad.[6][9]
  3. Introduces the answer to a direct question about a reason: „Warum lachst du?“ – „Weil der Hund einen Hut trägt.“[6]
  4. (with a temporal sense) Now that, since: Weil du schon hier bist, kannst du mir helfen.[6]
  5. (colloquial) Introduces a main clause with the verb in second place, explaining what was just said.[6][9]
  6. (obsolete) while, as long as.[1][8]

Word family

  • dieweil
  • alldieweil
  • derweil
  • Weile
  • English while

Usage notes

Since weil introduces a subordinate clause, the standard language puts the finite verb at the end (weil er krank ist); the order with the verb in second place (weil er ist krank) is common in speech but is not considered correct in the standard language.[6][4]

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 i j k l m Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  3. ^ a b c d e f Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 28, 762
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 979
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  7. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  8. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  9. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org