samen

Forms

samen^[1] A shortened form is saam.^[2][3][4] The formal written variant is tezamen.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle Dutch tsamen, a contraction of tesamen, from Old Dutch tesaman: the adverb saman (“together”) with the preposition te.^[5][1][2] The adverb is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *saman, inherited from Proto-Germanic *samana (“together”).^[5][1] The phrase with a preposition is also Old Saxon tesamna, Old High German zisamane (modern German zusammen), Old Frisian to samene and Old English tōsomne; without it the word is saman, saman, somen, Old Norse saman and Gothic 𐍃𐌰𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰 (samana).^[5][3][6] The original sense was probably “to the same place”, from *sama- (“same”) with a suffix of direction.^[5] That stem continues the o-grade of Proto-Indo-European *sem- (“one”), the root of sommige.^[5][1]

In Middle Dutch an ⟨s⟩ before a vowel was usually voiced, but after ⟨t⟩ it became voiceless, and the cluster /ts/ was later simplified to /s/.^[5][1] The voiced sound was written ⟨z⟩ from Early Modern Dutch on, which is why tezamen, verzamelen and gezamenlijk have ⟨z⟩.^[5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old Dutch saman first appears in the Wachtendonck Psalms of the 10th century, in thie samon mit mi suota nami muos “who took sweet food together with me”.^[5][7][8] The phrase zesamene gebunden “bound together” follows in the Egmond Williram of about 1100.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Middle Dutch used the adverb alone, as in a text of 1200 where all were merry samen, but mostly with te: around 1201–1225 Floris finds Blanchefleur tesamene with him in a room, and a Limburg word list of 1240 has te samene sitten “to meet” and te samene slapen “to sleep together”.^[5][9] The contracted tsamen appears in the first half of the 14th century.^[5]

Spelling long wavered: tsamen and t'samen were written until well into the 18th century, tzamen from Mellema's dictionary of 1618, and both samen and zamen had followers until the word list of 1866 made samen general.^[4] In some rural areas samen was added to a greeting addressed to a group, as in goeie morgen zaam, and an informal goedenavond samen is still used.^[4][10]

Through Afrikaans saam the word reached Shona, and Negerhollands had tesaemen.^[11][1]

Timeline

• 901–1000 – Old Dutch samon “together” in the Wachtendonck Psalms.^[5][8]
• c. 1100 – Zesamene “together” in the Egmond Williram.^[5]
• 1200 – Middle Dutch samen is first recorded.^[5][9]
• 1201–1225 – Tesamene in the romance of Floris and Blanchefleur.^[5][9]
• 1300–1350 – The contracted form tsamen appears.^[5]
• 1618 – Mellema's dictionary has the spelling tzamen.^[4]
• 1866 – The official word list makes samen the standard spelling.^[4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. together, in one place, in each other's company.^[10][1]
2. With one another, jointly: ze hebben het huis samen gekocht.^[10][12]
3. Among themselves, mutually: de buren hadden samen ruzie.^[10]
4. In total, taken together: dat is samen tien euro.^[10]

Word family

• samenstelling
• samenhang
• samenleven
• samenspraak
• samengaan
• samenspannen
• samenbrengen

Related words

• tezamen
• verzamelen
• gezamenlijk
• zamelen
• sommige
• German zusammen

Usage notes

Samen uit, samen thuis says that what is begun together should be finished together.^[10] In South Africa the form saam strengthens met, as in met di trein saam.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Veen, P. A. F. van; Sijs, Nicoline van der (1997), Etymologisch woordenboek: de herkomst van onze woorden, 2nd ed., Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Lexicografie
3. ^ a b Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
4. ^ a b c d e f Vries, Matthias de; Winkel, L. A. te, et al. (1882–1998), Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal, 29 vols., 's-Gravenhage / Leiden: Nijhoff / Sijthoff / SDU; supplement 2001; gtb.ivdnt.org
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Philippa, Marlies; Debrabandere, Frans; Quak, Arend; Schoonheim, Tanneke; Sijs, Nicoline van der (2003–2009), Etymologisch woordenboek van het Nederlands, 4 vols., Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press; online via etymologiebank.nl
6. ^ Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
7. ^ Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
8. ^ a b Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
9. ^ a b c Pijnenburg, W. J. J., et al. (2001), Vroegmiddelnederlands woordenboek: woordenboek van het Nederlands van de dertiende eeuw in hoofdzaak op basis van het Corpus-Gysseling, Leiden: Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie; gtb.ivdnt.org
10. ^ a b c d e f Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
11. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
12. ^ WikiWoordenboek (Dutch Wiktionary), nl.wiktionary.org