zwei

Forms

zwei (cardinal number; genitive zweier, dative zweien when the case is not otherwise shown)^[2][3] Until the 18th century, and in poets even later, three genders were distinguished: masculine zween, feminine zwo, neuter zwei.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German zwei, inherited from Old High German zwei, inherited from Proto-Germanic *twai (“two”).^[5][1][6] The Old High German form was the neuter of an inflected numeral whose masculine was zwēne and feminine zwō or zwā.^[5][4][1] The masculine form is a West Germanic distributive numeral, which Kluge reconstructs as Proto-West Germanic *twajina-, also in Old English twēgen and Old Frisian twēne.^[5][4] The same numeral is Gothic 𐍄𐍅𐌰𐌹 (twai), Old Norse tveir and Old Saxon twēne, and it survives in Dutch twee, English two and Swedish två.^[5][4]

It goes back to a dual form Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁, which Kluge writes *dwōu.^[1][5] The same numeral is Ancient Greek δύο (dúo), Latin duo, Old Irish dá, Welsh dau, Lithuanian dù, Russian два (dva) and Tocharian B wi.^[5][4] Duden thinks the prefix zer- probably belongs to it.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German zwēne, zwō, zwei is recorded from the 8th century.^[5][4][8] The Hildebrandslied, the Isidor translation, the Benedictine Rule and Notker use it for “two” and “both”;^[9] untar zwein meant “in doubt”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

New High German kept the three genders until the 18th century, and writers mixed them: Paul quotes zwo Händ' und zwo Beine from Goethe and zwoer Herzen from Schiller.^[3][4] Adelung recommended the neuter form, which finally prevailed.^[3] The feminine zwo was revived for all genders on the telephone and in business, to avoid confusion with drei;^[3][4][7] Paul dates this to the First World War, Pfeifer to the early 20th century.^[3][4][7]

In the 14th century the ordinal zweite replaced the older ander “second”.^[4][7] Many words were formed from the numeral, such as Zweifel (originally “twofold possibility”), Zweig (“forked branch”), Zwilling, Zwirn (“twofold thread”) and zwölf (“two over ten”).^[7] The adjective zweideutig was coined by Harsdörffer in 1641 for Latin aequivocus, and Zweikampf by Zesen in 1645 for Latin duellum.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German zwēne, zwō, zwei is first recorded.^[5][4]
• 14th century – The ordinal zweiter replaces ander.^[4]
• 1641 – Harsdörffer coins zweideutig.^[3]
• 1645 – Zesen coins Zweikampf.^[3]
• 17th century – The adverb zweitens appears.^[4]
• 18th century – The neuter zwei becomes the form for all genders.^[3][4]
• Early 20th century – zwo is revived on the telephone.^[4][3]

Meanings

Numeral

1. Two, the number 2.^[2][1]
2. (colloquial) Two o'clock; two years old.^[10]

Word family

• zweite
• zweitens
• Zwei
• entzwei
• zweideutig
• Zweikampf
• zwanzig
• zwölf
• Zweifel
• Zweig
• Zwilling
• Zwirn
• zwischen
• Zwist
• Zwitter
• Zuber
• zwie-

Related words

• zer-
• Duo
• English two

Usage notes

Für zwei means “for two, a great deal”: er isst für zwei “he eats enough for two”.^[2] The noun Zwei is the figure 2, and in German schools the mark “good”.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 i j k l m n o 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 d e f g h Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1019
6. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 958
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b Schützeichel, Rudolf (2012), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 7th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 412
10. ^ Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org