wohnen

Forms

wohnen (third-person singular present wohnt, past tense wohnte, past participle gewohnt, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German wonen, inherited from Old High German wonēn (“to stay, dwell; to be accustomed”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *wunēn, inherited from Proto-Germanic *wunāną.^[2][1][3] The same verb is Old Saxon wonon, Old English wunian (“to dwell, remain”), Old Frisian wonia and Dutch wonen.^[2][4][5] Beside it stand Gothic 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌿𐌽𐌰𐌽𐌳𐍃 (unwunands, “discontented, troubled”) and Old Norse una (“to be content; to dwell”), from which Kluge infers “to be content” as the common starting point.^[2][5] Kroonen explains the Germanic verb as a stative formed from an adjective meaning “accustomed”.^[5][1]

In ablaut with it are gewöhnen and gewohnt, and Kluge thinks the whole group is probably connected with gewinnen and Wonne, with an original sense such as “to love, value”.^[2] Pfeifer and Duden derive it from the root Proto-Indo-European *wenh₁- (“to strive for, wish, love”), with a development from “to strive for” through “to be satisfied, like, be used to” to “to stay at an accustomed place”.^[4][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates the first Old High German records to glosses of the last quarter of the 8th century.^[3] Schützeichel gives the senses “to dwell, stay, be; to live; to remain, last” and, with the genitive, “to persevere in”, in Isidor, the Monsee fragments, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^[7] The glosses also show the sense “to be accustomed”, translating Latin solent with wonent.^[8]

Semantic evolution

In Old and Middle High German the verb usually meant more generally “to stay, linger”, as still in Luther's Vnd das Wort ward Fleisch / vnd wonet vnter vns “and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” and in a letter of Goethe's from 1777, ich wohne in stiller Traurigkeit “I dwell in quiet sadness”.^[9] This older sense survives in beiwohnen and in im Hotel wohnen.^[9] Middle High German already used it commonly for having one's permanent home, and figuratively in Faust's Zwei Seelen wohnen, ach! in meiner Brust.^[9]

The sense “to be accustomed” was still alive in Early New High German and is found in glossaries of the 15th century, but survives today only in gewohnt and gewöhnen.^[8] The noun Wohnung, Old High German wonunga from the 9th century, at first also meant a stay and a custom.^[4][10][9] Compounds include Wohnhaus from Middle High German, Wohnsitz recorded by Kramer in 1702, Wohnwagen from 1905 and Wohngemeinschaft “shared flat”, listed in 1977.^[9]

Timeline

• Late 8th century – Old High German wonēn appears in glosses.^[3]
• 9th century – First record of wonunga “dwelling”.^[4]
• 1425 – A Low German glossary still renders Latin consuere with wonen “to be used to”.^[8]
• 1702 – Kramer records Wohnsitz.^[9]
• 1777 – Goethe writes ich wohne in stiller Traurigkeit.^[9]
• 1905 – First record of Wohnwagen.^[9]
• 1977 – Wohngemeinschaft is listed in a dictionary of contemporary German.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. To live, reside, have one's home somewhere: Wir wohnen seit acht Jahren in Leipzig. Sie wohnt im dritten Stock. Idiom: hinter dem Mond wohnen, to be out of touch.^[11][1]
2. To stay somewhere for a time, to be lodged: Während der Messe wohnte er bei einem Kollegen.^[11][1]

Word family

• Wohnung
• wohnhaft
• bewohnen
• beiwohnen
• innewohnen
• wohnlich
• Wohnort
• Wohnzimmer
• Wohnheim
• Einwohner

Related words

• gewöhnen
• gewohnt
• Wonne
• gewinnen
• Old English wunian

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 994
3. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
4. ^ a b c d 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. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 938
7. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 399
8. ^ a b c Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 30, 1216
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 976
11. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag