zu

Forms

zu^[1]

Etymology

The modern word unites an old adverb and an old preposition.^[2][1] The stressed adverb is inherited from Middle High German zuo, inherited from Old High German zuo, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *tō, also found as Old Saxon tō, Old English tō and Old Frisian tō.^[2][3][4] Beside it stood the unstressed preposition, Old High German za and zi, Middle High German ze, from Proto-Germanic *ta, with ti and te in the related languages.^[3][2][4] Both live on in Dutch toe and Dutch te and in English too and English to.^[2] The corresponding Gothic 𐌳𐌿 (du) does not fit them in its sounds.^[2]

Kluge compares the preposition with a postposition Proto-Indo-European *-de (“to, towards”) in Ancient Greek οἶκόνδε (oîkónde, “homewards”) and Avestan vaēsmən-da (“to the house”), and the adverb with Proto-Indo-European *do, apparently lengthened under stress in Germanic, as in Latin quandō (“when”), Old Irish do, Welsh du, Old Church Slavonic до (do, “up to”) and Lithuanian da-.^[2] Pfeifer traces all these, with dē (“from, down from”), to an old instrumental of a demonstrative pronoun, Proto-Indo-European *dē-.^[3] The Duden calls the connection with the Greek, Latin and Russian words probable.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German za, zi and ze and the adverb zuo are all recorded in the 8th century.^[3][7] The preposition meant “to, towards, into, at, on” and governed the dative, the accusative and the instrumental;^[8] Paul takes its first meaning to be nearness in space, without regard to the particular position.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the 10th century the stressed adverb zuo began to oust the preposition za, zi, ze and took over its functions, so that Old and Middle High German zuo was both adverb and preposition.^[3][10] Upper German kept the old form as z’.^[9] The dialects still widely keep the stressed and unstressed forms apart.^[1]

The use of zu for a position at rest survives only in remnants: zu Hause “at home”, zu Wasser und zu Lande “by sea and by land”, zur Rechten “on the right”, and before place names, where zu München was at first “among the monks”.^[9] The use with the infinitive and the use for an excessive degree (zu weit “too far”) both grew out of the preposition.^[5] The adverb came to mean “closed” (die Tür ist zu), originally “close up against it”, as opposed to auf “open”.^[3] The pair ab und zu meant “away and back, in and out” in the 15th century and “now and then” from the 19th.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German za, zi, ze and zuo are first recorded.^[3]
• 10th century – The adverb zuo begins to be used as a preposition.^[10][3]
• 15th century – Ab und zu is recorded in the sense “away and back”.^[3]
• 19th century – Ab und zu comes to mean “now and then”.^[3]

Meanings

Preposition

1. To, towards; marking the goal of a movement: das Kind läuft zu der Mutter “the child runs to its mother”.^[6][1]
2. With, along with; marking something added: zu dem Essen gab es einen Wein “there was a wine with the meal”.^[6][1]
3. At, in; marking place, now mainly in fixed phrases: zu Hause “at home”, zu ebener Erde “at ground level”;^[6][1] (dated) before place names.^[6][1]
4. At, in; marking a point or period of time: zu Anfang des Jahres “at the beginning of the year”, zu Lebzeiten “during one's lifetime”.^[6][3]
5. For; marking purpose: zum Trost “as a consolation”.^[3][1]
6. Into; marking a result or transformation: zu Brei kochen “to boil to a mush”.^[3][1]
7. At; marking a price or rate, and to, in ratios.^[1]

Adverb

1. Too; marking an excessive degree: der Weg ist zu weit “the way is too far”.^[3][5]
2. Closed, shut: die Tür ist zu “the door is shut”.^[3]
3. Towards: nach Süden zu “towards the south”.^[3]
4. Go on!, in nur zu!.^[3]

Particle

1. To, before an infinitive.^[1][5]
2. With an uninflected ordinal: in a group of: zu zweit “as a pair”.^[1]

Word family

• zum
• zur
• dazu
• nahezu
• zuerst
• zuletzt
• zunächst
• zuweilen

Related words

• bis
• jetzt
• English to
• English too

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 f Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1015
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
4. ^ a b Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
6. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 406
9. ^ a b c Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
10. ^ a b Lexer, Matthias (1872–1878), Mittelhochdeutsches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols., Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 3, 1036