zehn

Forms

zehn (cardinal number; uninflected before a noun)^[2][1] The contracted form zēn already occurs in Notker, but the two-syllable zehen remained the written form for a long time.^[2] Bellin's spelling book of 1657 allowed zehn beside zehen, the short form became more frequent in the 18th century, and Goethe still preferred zehen.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German zehen, inherited from Old High German zehan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *tehun (“ten”).^[4][5][6] The same word is Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌷𐌿𐌽 (taihun), Old Norse tíu, Old English tīen, Old Frisian tiān and Old Saxon tehan, and today Dutch tien, English ten and Swedish tio.^[4][5][6] It continues Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥ (“ten”), the Indo-European numeral, which is also found in Sanskrit दश (dáśa), Ancient Greek δέκα (déka), Latin decem and Old Irish deich.^[4][5][1] The Baltic and Slavic forms, such as Lithuanian dešimtìs and Old Church Slavonic десѧть (desętĭ), point instead to a collective noun with an added dental, meaning “a group of ten”.^[5] The numeral is related to the suffix -zig of zwanzig and to hundert, originally “a group of tens”.^[3][2]

Its further origin is unclear.^[4][5] One proposal splits off a first element meaning “two” and takes the rest as a word for “hand”, so that ten would be “two hands”;^[4][5] Kluge rejects it, because the Germanic word for hand is too isolated for such a comparison, and Pfeifer reports Jensen's version of the idea as uncertain.^[4][5] Kroonen derives the numeral from a root Proto-Indo-European *dek- (“to fit (in a row)”), which he also finds in Middle Low German tachen (“to arrange”) and Middle High German zesem (“row”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German zehan is first recorded in glosses of about 765, and then in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker, the Monsee fragments and the Georgslied, meaning “ten”.^[7][8] The ordinal zehanto “tenth” appears in the Old High German Benedictine Rule of about 800.^[7][8]

Semantic evolution

Used as a noun, the ordinal came to mean the tenth part of the yield of cattle and crops paid as a tax to the church or a landlord, the Zehnt;^[5][4] Old High German zehanto has this sense from the 11th century.^[5][4] Paul connects the payment with the rules of the Old Testament.^[3] The fraction Zehntel is shortened from Zehnteil, Middle High German zehenteil, and has had its present form since the 18th century.^[5][9]

For a period of ten years the 18th century often said das Zehnt, which was then replaced by Jahrzehnt, first Jahrzehend, probably formed after Jahrhundert.^[3][9] The phrase die oberen Zehntausend “the upper ten thousand”, the richest and most distinguished part of society, follows English upper ten thousand;^[3] Bismarck used it.^[3] In the Upper German dialects the old /h/ survives as a fricative, as in Swiss zähe, inflected zächni.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German zehan appears in glosses.^[7]
• c. 800 – The ordinal zehanto is used in the Benedictine Rule.^[7]
• c. 1000 – Notker writes the contracted form zēn.^[2]
• 11th century – zehanto is used for the tithe.^[5]
• 1657 – Bellin's spelling book allows zehn beside zehen.^[2]
• 18th century – Zehntel takes its present form, and Jahrzehend is formed.^[5][9]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Ten, the cardinal number 10: zehn Minuten, um zehn (at ten o'clock).^[10][1][11]

Word family

• zehnte
• Zehnt
• Zehntel
• Zehner
• Jahrzehnt
• Zehntausend

Related words

• -zig
• hundert
• English ten

Usage notes

The figure 10, a playing card with ten pips and, colloquially, a tram or bus of route 10 are called die Zehn, a feminine noun formed from the numeral.^[10][1][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 31, 443
3. ^ a b c d e f Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1004
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
6. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 404
9. ^ a b c Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 946
10. ^ a b Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
11. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org
12. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 31, 447