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te

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te1 at, to; too

Pronunciation

Forms

te[1]

Etymology

The preposition is inherited from Middle Dutch te, inherited from Old Dutch te (once ti), inherited from Proto-Germanic *ta (“to”).[2][1][3] It is an old weakened form of the adverb toe: in the West Germanic languages the adverbs kept their full vowel, while the prepositions that grew out of them carried less stress and were reduced, as met stands beside the adverb mede.[2] The same short form is Old Saxon te, ti, Old Frisian te and Old High German za, zi, ze, and the full form Old Saxon tō, Old High German zuo (modern German zu) and Old English tō (modern English to and English too).[4][3][5] Gothic 𐌳𐌿 (du) has another origin.[6]

Outside Germanic the sources compare Old Church Slavonic до (do, “to, up to”), Old Latin endo (“in”) and the Greek ending -δε (-de) of οἴκονδε (oíkonde, “homeward”), pointing to Proto-Indo-European *de beside *do.[4][3][5]

The adverb meaning “too” is probably the same word: the shift had already taken place in West Germanic, as Old English tō, Old Saxon ti and Old High German zi show, though how it came about is unclear.[2] Johannisson (followed by Kluge and De Vries & De Tollenaere) instead equates it with the Middle Dutch verbal prefix te- (“apart, to pieces”) of tebreken (“to break to pieces”), whose destructive or intensifying sense would have passed from participles to adjectives.[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old Dutch te first appears around 900 in place names, as in te Amuthon “at Muiden”.[2][7] The Wachtendonck Psalms of the 10th century use it for direction, “to”, and before a verbal noun, as in te etoni “to eat”.[2][8] Because the word points to a direction or goal, the EWN takes that to be its first meaning.[2]

Semantic evolution

From “towards, to” the preposition spread by analogy into many uses with no idea of a goal, most of them already in West Germanic or Old Dutch times; it always took the dative.[2][9] One of its West Germanic uses was te before the infinitive used as a noun, which ended in -e in the dative;[2] Middle Dutch gradually lost that ending, and te became the sign of the infinitive.[2]

In frequent combinations te was cut to t- already in Middle Dutch, giving samen, sedert, tegen, thans and thuis, and with the article it became ten (from te den) and ter (from te der).[2] In modern Dutch te before a noun has largely given way to naar, in, op and bij, and lives on in formal style and in fixed phrases that keep old dative endings.[2][10]

The sense “too, excessively” is found from 1236, as in niet te dicke “not too often”, and Middle Dutch also used al te simply for “very”, a sense that could easily turn into “too much”.[2][9] Dutch te passed into Negerhollands (toe “to”, tu “too”) and into Petjo.[11][1]

Timeline

  • c. 900 – Old Dutch te appears in place names such as te Amuthon “at Muiden”.[2][7]
  • 901–1000 – The Wachtendonck Psalms use te for “to” and before a verbal noun.[2][8]
  • 1151 – An Old Dutch rhyming text from Werden uses te for “too, excessively”.[7]
  • 1200 – Middle Dutch te(n) is recorded in Limburg.[9][2]
  • 1236 – Te dicke “too often” is the first Middle Dutch record of the sense “too”.[2][8]
  • 1931 – The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal notes that te before a noun survives in northern Dutch mostly in fixed phrases and formal style.[10]

Meanings

Preposition

  1. (formal) At, in, with the name of a place: Hij woont te Leiden.[12][2][1]
  2. For, with a view to, in fixed phrases such as te koop “for sale” and te huur “to let”.[12]
  3. (archaic) At a point in time.[12]
  4. to, the particle before an infinitive: Het is moeilijk te zeggen.[12][1]
  5. With the verbs hangen, liggen, lopen, staan and zitten: Ze zat te lezen.[12]

Adverb

  1. too, more than is wanted or proper: De soep is te heet.[12][1]
  2. Stressed and used without the qualification, more than that qualification states.[12]

Word family

  • ten
  • ter
  • terecht
  • tegelijk
  • tegelijkertijd
  • tegemoet
  • teleurstellen
  • telkens
  • teloorgaan
  • terdege
  • terloops
  • ternauwernood
  • thuis
  • samen

te2 the (with a comparative)

Pronunciation

Forms

te[1]

Etymology

The comparative particle is inherited from Middle Dutch de, later te, the old instrumental case of the demonstrative die, always followed by an adjective or adverb in the comparative.[2][6][5] The regular form with /d/ is still found now and then in the earliest Middle Dutch, but the word mostly came after des, the genitive of the same pronoun, and the phrase des de was assimilated to deste.[2][6] Under the influence of the adverb meaning “too”, which also stood before adjectives and adverbs, it was usually spelled des te.[2]

The same use is Old Saxon thiu, Old High German des diu (modern German desto), Old English þȳ, þē (modern English the) and Gothic 𐌸𐌴 (þē).[2][4][6] The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal leaves open which of the Middle Dutch instrumental forms die and di lies behind it.[10] Van Haeringen preferred to equate the Middle Dutch particle with Old High German diu and Old Saxon thiu.[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record, from Limburg around 1200, is deste bat “all the better”, in a text urging a sister to serve him all the better.[2][9] The original sense was “by that, thereby”.[10]

Semantic evolution

The particle survives only before a comparative, in des te and zoveel te, and in the compound niettemin “nevertheless”.[2][12][10] The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal notes that writers sometimes added daarom or er om for clarity once the sense of te had faded, as in a 1644 line te beter om “the better for it”.[10]

Timeline

  • 1200 – Deste bat “all the better” is recorded in Limburg.[2][9]
  • 1253 – A Ghent charter has ombe de meerre vastheden “for (all) the more certainty”, with the older form de.[2][9]
  • 1521 – The earliest quotation in the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal.[10]

Meanings

Adverb

  1. Before a comparative: the, all the, so much the, as in des te beter “all the better”.[12][10]

Word family

  • niettemin

Usage notes

Many fixed phrases keep old dative forms after te: te berde brengen, te elfder ure, ten koste van, ter zake; in te voet and te paard the endings have gone.[2] In oaths such as te drommel, te is a distortion of the article de.[14] The intensifier in te maf “splendid” was recorded as a new phrase in 1984.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 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
  3. ^ a b c Franck, Johannes; Wijk, Nicolaas van (1912), Franck's Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, 2nd ed., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
  4. ^ a b c Vries, Jan de (1971), Nederlands etymologisch woordenboek, Leiden: Brill
  5. ^ a b c d Vries, Jan de; Tollenaere, Félicien de (2004), Etymologisch woordenboek: onze woorden, hun oorsprong en ontwikkeling, 23rd ed., Utrecht: Het Spectrum, p. 380
  6. ^ a b c d Verwijs, Eelco; Verdam, Jacob (1885–1929), Middelnederlandsch woordenboek, 11 vols., 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff; gtb.ivdnt.org
  7. ^ a b c Oudnederlands Woordenboek (2009–), Instituut voor de Nederlandse Taal, Leiden; gtb.ivdnt.org
  8. ^ a b c Sijs, Nicoline van der (2001), Chronologisch woordenboek: de ouderdom en herkomst van onze woorden en betekenissen, Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Veen
  9. ^ a b c d e f 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 g h 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
  11. ^ Sijs, Nicoline van der (2010), Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd, Den Haag: Sdu; with additions from the Uitleenwoordenbank (2015)
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Van Dale Groot woordenboek hedendaags Nederlands (2014), Utrecht / Antwerpen: Van Dale Uitgevers
  13. ^ Haeringen, C. B. van (1936), Etymologisch woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal: Supplement, 's-Gravenhage: Nijhoff
  14. ^ Sterkenburg, P. G. J. van (2001), Vloeken: een cultuurbepaalde reactie op woede, irritatie en frustratie, 2nd ed., Den Haag: Sdu
  15. ^ Reinsma, R. (1984), Neologismen, Utrecht: Spectrum