Etymologically
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wo

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Pronunciation

Forms

wo (adverb and conjunction; before a preposition beginning with a vowel wor-, as in woran, worin)[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German wā, inherited from Old High German hwār, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *hwār; late Middle High German had wō.[3][4][1] The same word is Old Saxon hwār, Old English hwǣr and Old Frisian hwēr, and today Dutch waar and English where; with a short vowel, Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐍂 (ƕar), Old Norse hvar and Swedish var.[3][4][5] Kluge treats the long and short forms as ablaut variants, Proto-West Germanic *hwǣr beside Proto-Germanic *hwar;[3] Kroonen holds that the West Germanic long vowel arose by lengthening in a word of one syllable, as in the Latin word for “why”.[5]

It is a locative formed with the suffix /r/ from the interrogative stem Proto-Indo-European *kʷo-, which is also in wer.[3][5] Pfeifer compares Latin cūr (“why”) (Old Latin quōr) and Lithuanian kur̃ (“where”), as formations with /r/ on different grades of the same stem.[4] The Grimms' dictionary assigns the Lithuanian word to a separate stem with /u/.[6]

Final /r/ was lost in particles of one syllable from the 11th century, and /ā/ became /ō/ after /w/ from the second half of the 13th century; the change prevailed in the 16th century.[4][7] The old /r/ remains in compounds before a vowel, as in woran and worin, and the old vowel in warum and etwa.[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German (h)wār is recorded from the 8th century, meaning “where, whence”, also “somewhere” and “when”, in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker, the Muspilli and the Kassel and Paris conversation books.[4][8]

Semantic evolution

The conjunction grew out of Old High German sō (h)wār sō “wherever” through sō wār (9th century) and Middle High German swō (1330) to wō (14th century).[4] In late Middle High German the simple word replaced the generalizing relative swā; later it came to refer to a definite place (da, wo), where it displaced da.[7] Writers such as Lessing, Wieland and Schiller also used it loosely after nouns and with reference to time, as in Schiller's jetzt ist eine schwere Zeit, wo auch das Weib sich in den Panzer steckt.[7]

With the sense of place faded, wo meant “if, in case”, as in Luther's wo ihr nach dem Fleische lebet, so werdet ihr sterben müssen; this is now dated except in wo nicht and womöglich.[7][9] The indefinite use “somewhere” is colloquial;[7][10] Middle High German used etewā for it, later replaced by irgendwo.[7][10] In regional and nonstandard speech wo also serves as a relative pronoun for persons and things.[9][1]

Timeline

  • 8th century – Old High German (h)wār is recorded.[4]
  • 9th century – sō wār is used as a conjunction.[4]
  • 11th century – Final -r begins to be lost.[4]
  • Second half of the 13th century – The form wō appears.[4][7]
  • 1330 – Middle High German swō is recorded.[4]
  • 16th century – wo prevails over wa.[7]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. (interrogative) where, at what place: wo steht das Auto?[9][1]
  2. (relative) Where, at which place: das Haus, wo sie aufgewachsen ist.[9][1]
  3. (relative) When, at which time: an dem Tag, wo es so stürmte.[9][1]
  4. (colloquial) somewhere.[9][1]
  5. (regional, nonstandard) Who, which, as a relative pronoun: die Frau, wo nebenan wohnt.[9][1]

Conjunction

  1. (dated) If: wo nicht “if not”.[9]
  2. Since, given that; although: wo du doch schon da bist.[11][1]

Word family

  • woran
  • worin
  • worauf
  • irgendwo
  • anderswo
  • nirgendwo
  • womöglich

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 937
  3. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 993
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 30, 903
  7. ^ 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
  8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 371
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  10. ^ a b Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org