zwingen

Forms

zwingen (class 3 strong, third-person singular present zwingt, past tense zwang, past participle gezwungen, past subjunctive zwänge, auxiliary haben)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German twingen, inherited from Old High German dwingan, inherited from Proto-Germanic *þwinhaną (“to constrain, force”).^[2][1][3] The same strong verb is Old Saxon thwingan, Old Frisian thwinga continued in Dutch dwingen and Swedish tvinga, and the English verb twinge belongs here.^[2][4][5] Old Norse þvinga, a weak verb recorded late, may be a loan from Middle Low German.^[4][6]

It has no certain cognates outside Germanic.^[2][7] The only close match in form is an Avestan verb meaning “gets into distress”, which points to Proto-Indo-European *tu̯eng̑ʰ- (“to press”);^[4][2] with a final /k/ instead, Lithuanian tveñkti (“to dam up”) and Ancient Greek σάττω (sáttō, “I stuff, press together”) have been compared, but the connection is doubtful.^[2][4] The basic sense would be “to press a body together by force”.^[4][7]

The initial consonant shows a regular development: Germanic /þ/ became Old High German ⟨d⟩, Middle High German ⟨t⟩ and finally ⟨z⟩, as in Zwerg.^[1] The ⟨tw-⟩ spelling, found from Notker on, prevails in Middle High German until the end of the 15th century, and ⟨zw-⟩ begins in the 14th century.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German dwingan is recorded from the 8th century, meaning “to force, subdue, bind, rule, restrain, chastise”.^[3][8] In the oldest glosses its past participle is gidungan, with the /w/ lost before /u/, as also in thunginus in the Lex Salica.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The figurative senses “to overpower, master, oppress” are fully developed already in Old High German.^[4] Paul lists “to press” (Luther: wer die Nase hart schneuzet, zwingt Blut heraus), the obsolete “to subjugate”, now bezwingen, the regional “to manage (a meal, a task)”, and the commonest sense, “to compel”.^[5] The reflexive sich zwingen dates from Early New High German, and sich gezwungen sehen from the 17th century.^[5] The participle gezwungen “forced, affected” has the negative ungezwungen “natural, relaxed” from the 18th century.^[7][5] The past tense kept the Middle High German ablaut (twanc, plural twungen) until New High German levelled it.^[3]

Timeline

• 8th century – Old High German thwingan;^[4][2] twingan from the 9th century.^[4][2]
• About 1000 – Notker writes ⟨tw-⟩.^[3][4]
• 14th century – Spellings with ⟨zw-⟩ begin.^[3][7]
• 16th century – zwingend “compelling”.^[7]
• 17th century – The phrase sich gezwungen sehen.^[5]
• 18th century – ungezwungen “natural”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To force, compel by threats or force: jemanden zu einem Geständnis zwingen.^[9][1]
2. (reflexive) To force oneself: Er zwang sich, ruhig zu bleiben.^[9]
3. Of a situation, to make something necessary: Der Regen zwang uns zur Umkehr.^[9][1]
4. (elevated) To force someone into a place or position: jemanden zu Boden zwingen.^[9]
5. (regional) To manage, cope with: Sie wird die Prüfung schon zwingen.^[9][5]

Word family

• bezwingen
• erzwingen
• aufzwingen
• abzwingen
• zwingend
• Zwinger
• Zwinge
• Zwingburg
• ungezwungen

Related words

• Zwang
• zwängen
• English twinge

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1020
3. ^ a b c d e f g Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 2, 922
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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 Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
6. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 32, 1224
7. ^ a b c d e f Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag
8. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
9. ^ a b c d e Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag