wieder
Pronunciation
Forms
wieder[1]
Etymology
It is inherited from Middle High German wider, inherited from Old High German widar, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wiþr, inherited from Proto-Germanic *wiþra- (“against, back”), and is in origin the same word as the preposition wider “against”.[2][3][1] The two spellings were separated by scholars in the 17th and 18th centuries.[2][3][4] The same word is Old Saxon wiðar, Old Frisian wither, Old English wiþer, Old Norse viðr and Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌸𐍂𐌰 (wiþra); shorter forms such as wiþ gave English with and Swedish vid.[3][2][5]
The Germanic form is an adverb made with the contrastive suffix Proto-Indo-European *-tero- from Proto-Indo-European *wi- (“apart”); the same formation is Sanskrit वि॒त॒रम् (vitarám, “further”).[2][3][5][1] Its first meaning was thus “further away”, from which came “opposite, against”, and then “back, again”.[4][3] The same root gives weit.[4][5]
Earliest recorded meaning
Old High German widar is a preposition “against” from the 8th century, and the adverb widar(i) “against, back, once more” is recorded from around 800.[3] All the uses of the modern word were already developed in Old High German, including the adversative “on the other hand” in Notker.[3]
Semantic evolution
The adverb meant “back”, against the direction taken, which gave the temporal sense “again”.[3] Paul notes that in New High German wieder took over the sense “once more” that aber used to have and that still survives in abermals.[6] The old sense “back” lives on in hin und wieder and in compounds such as wiederkommen, wiedergeben and Wiederkehr.[6] The spelling wieder is found as early as 1261 but became established only in the 17th century, when grammarians reserved it for the adverb and kept wider for “against”.[6][4][7] From Middle High German wider, through Middle Low German, came English widdershins.[1]
Timeline
- 8th century – Old High German preposition widar “against”.[2][3]
- c. 800 – The adverb widar(i) “back, again”.[3]
- 1261 – First record of the spelling wieder.[6]
- 17th century – The spellings wieder “again” and wider “against” are distinguished.[6][4]
Meanings
Adverb
- again, once more: wir fahren dieses Jahr wieder an die See “we're going to the seaside again this year”.[7][1]
- With ander and similar words: yet another: und wieder andere haben keine Meinung “and still others have no opinion”.[7]
- back, to a former state: wieder gesund sein “to be well again”.[7][1]
- (colloquial) On the other hand, in turn: marks a contrast or another point of view.[8][3]
Word family
- wiederum
- hinwieder
- wiederholen
- Wiederkehr
- wiederkommen
- Wiedergabe
- Wiedersehen
- Wiedervereinigung
- Wiederkunft
Related words
- wider
- zuwider
- weit
- English with
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 986
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
- ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
- ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org