ziehen

Forms

ziehen (class 2 strong, third-person singular present zieht, past tense zog, past participle gezogen, past subjunctive zöge, auxiliary haben or sein)^[1] The older present forms du zeuchst, er zeucht and the imperative zeuch survived in poetry, as in Schiller's Zeuch dein Schwert.^[2][3] In Early New High German the past tense varied between zoch and zog, the latter levelled from the plural;^[4] Luther still has both, and zohe is still found in the 1590s.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German ziehen, inherited from Old High German ziohan, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *teuhan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *teuhaną (“to pull, lead”).^[5][1][6] The same verb is Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌿𐌷𐌰𐌽 (tiuhan, “to lead”), Old English tēon, Old Frisian tiā, Old Saxon tiohan and Old Dutch tian, while Old Norse keeps only the past participle toginn (“drawn”).^[5][6][7] It continues Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull, lead”), a root of the European languages, also found in Latin dūcō (“to lead, draw”), Welsh dwyn (“to bring, lead”) and Ancient Greek δαδύσσομαι (dadússomai, “I will be torn”).^[5][7][1] Kroonen notes that the Latin verb is formally identical with the Germanic one, and adds Albanian nduk (“to pull out”).^[6]

The alternation of /h/ and /g/ in ⟨ziehen⟩ beside ⟨zog⟩ and ⟨gezogen⟩ is the old grammatical change.^[2] From the same verb come Zug, Zucht, Zügel, zögern, Zögling and zucken, and Zaum, Zeug and Zeuge belong to the same root; Herzog originally meant “army leader”.^[5][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German ziohan is first recorded in glosses of about 765, and then in the Benedictine Rule, the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “to pull, lead, bring”, “to withdraw”, “to bring up, educate” and “to cultivate, nourish”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb was originally transitive, as in drawing a cart, a sword or a lot;^[2][11][3] Middle High German also used it intransitively for moving and travelling, for which modern German takes the auxiliary sein.^[2][11][3] The sense “to bring up” was strong from Old High German on, and the participle gave ungezogen, Old High German ungizogan “not yet brought up, unruly” (8th century), modern “naughty”.^[7][8]

The verb also serves in phrases standing for a single verb, such as in Zweifel ziehen “to doubt” (16th century) and Lehren ziehen “to learn” (18th century).^[7] Impersonal es zieht means “there is a draught”, colloquially es zieht wie Hechtsuppe.^[2] Among the derivatives, Aufzug took the sense “act of a play” in the 17th century, from the solemn entry of the actors, and Anzug the sense “suit” in the 18th.^[7][8] Upper Silesian Polish cyja “accordion” comes from Ziehharmonika.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 765 – Old High German ziohan appears in glosses.^[9]
• 8th century – ungizogan “unruly” is recorded.^[7]
• 9th century – abaziohan “to pull down” is recorded.^[7]
• 1060–1065 – Middle High German ziehen is used by Williram.^[13]
• 16th century – in Zweifel ziehen appears.^[7]
• 16th century – Luther uses both zoch and zog.^[4]
• 17th century – Aufzug is used for an act of a play.^[7]
• 18th century – Anzug is used for a suit, and Lehren ziehen appears.^[8][7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pull or drag behind one: einen Anhänger ziehen.^[3][1]
2. To pull toward oneself or to a place: die Decke über die Schultern ziehen.^[3]
3. To pull at something, or work it by pulling: an der Leine ziehen.^[3][1]
4. To draw out, extract or take: eine Karte ziehen.^[3][1]
5. (with sein) To move house: nach Hamburg ziehen.^[3][1]
6. (with sein) To go, travel, migrate: die Kraniche ziehen nach Süden.^[3][1]
7. (reflexive) To extend, stretch: der Weg zieht sich durch den Wald.^[3][1]
8. To grow or breed: Tomaten aus Samen ziehen.^[3]
9. (of tea) To steep: der Tee muss fünf Minuten ziehen.^[3]
10. (impersonal) To be draughty: es zieht.^[3][1]
11. To draw a conclusion or result: Schlüsse ziehen, Bilanz ziehen.^[3][1]
12. To inhale or puff: an der Pfeife ziehen.^[3][1]
13. To cause a drawing pain: es zieht mir im Nacken.^[3]
14. (colloquial) To have the desired effect: der Trick zieht nicht mehr.^[3]

Word family

• Zug
• Ziehung
• Zieher
• abziehen
• anziehen
• aufziehen
• ausziehen
• beziehen
• einziehen
• entziehen
• erziehen
• überziehen
• umziehen
• verziehen
• vollziehen
• zuziehen
• ungezogen
• Ziehharmonika

Related words

• Zucht
• Zügel
• zögern
• Zögling
• zucken
• Zaum
• Zeug
• Zeuge
• Herzog
• Latin dūcō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ 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. 31, 938
5. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1009
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 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
8. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 408
11. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1103
12. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
13. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling