Etymologically
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zusammen

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Pronunciation

  • /tsuˈzamən/, [tsuˈzamən][1]
  • Germany: [tsuˈzamm̩][1]
  • Colloquial: /tsəˈzamən/[1]
  • Austria, Bavaria: /tsuˈsamɛn/[1]

Forms

zusammen[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German zesamene, inherited from Old High German zisamane, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *te samanǣ (“together”).[2][3] The same West Germanic formation is Old Saxon tesamne, Old English tōsamne, Old Frisian to samene and Dutch tezamen.[2][3][4]

It strengthens the older adverb Proto-Germanic *samana- (“together”), seen in Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰 (samana), Old Norse saman and Old High German saman, with the preposition that is now zu.[2][3][5] That adverb is formed from the pronominal stem of Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰 (sama, “same”) and Old English same, and meant “towards the same place”.[2] Outside Germanic the stem is Proto-Indo-European *samo-, in Sanskrit सम (samá, “same, equal”), Latin simul (“at the same time”) and Old Church Slavonic самъ (samŭ, “self”).[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German zisamane is first recorded in the Benedictine Rule of the late 8th century, and then in the Hildebrandslied, Isidor, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “together, against each other”.[6][7] In the Hildebrandslied, zisamane stōpian is to let the warriors clash together.[7]

Semantic evolution

The Grimms' dictionary notes that zusammen, with its sense of direction, differed from samt and sament, which expressed being at rest together, and that it pushed aside both these and the simple sammen.[4] Notker wrote so sêla unde lîchamo zesamine choment “when soul and body come together”.[4] Adelung, around 1800, still distinguished zusammen for movement towards one place from beysammen for being together.[8]

Short forms zamen, zamme prevailed in Upper German dialects and their Early New High German literature, and Swiss and nearby Alemannic dialects have umlauted zemmen.[4] Swedish tillsamman and Danish tilsammen were formed after the Middle Low German model.[3][4] Compounds with verbs gave terms such as Zusammenhang, recorded by Stieler and made a philosophical term by Wolff for Latin cohaerentia, and Zusammensetzung, which became the grammatical term for “compound” after Bödiker in 1698.[9]

Timeline

  • Late 8th century – Old High German zisamane appears in the Benedictine Rule.[6]
  • c. 1120 – Middle High German zesamene is recorded in the Genesis.[10]
  • 1691 – Stieler records Zusammenhang.[9]
  • 1698 – Bödiker uses Zusammensetzung for “compound”.[9]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. together, jointly, with one or more others: Wir fahren zusammen in den Urlaub.[11][1]
  2. In all, altogether, counted as one sum: Das macht zusammen zwölf Euro.[11][12]

Adjective

  1. (only after a verb) Together, in the same place: Die Geschwister sind oft zusammen.[1][11]
  2. (informal) In a romantic relationship with each other: Die beiden sind seit Mai zusammen.[1][11]

Word family

  • Zusammenhang
  • zusammenhängen
  • zusammensetzen
  • Zusammensetzung
  • Zusammenarbeit
  • sammeln
  • samt
  • beisammen
  • -sam
  • Dutch tezamen

Usage notes

In close connection with a verb, the word is written together with it (zusammenarbeiten, zusammensetzen).[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1018
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ a b c d e Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 32, 729
  5. ^ Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 958
  6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  7. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 271
  8. ^ Adelung, Johann Christoph (1793–1801), Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, 2nd ed., 4 vols., Leipzig: Breitkopf
  9. ^ a b c d Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
  12. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org