vier German · revision 34930

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=8th century, Old High German glosses|origins=ine-pro *kʷetwṓr}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /fiːr/, [fi(ː)ɐ̯]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''vier''' (cardinal number; usually uninflected, dative ''vieren'' when used without a noun)^(Adelung 1793)^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|vier]], [[inh|goh|fior]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*feuwar]], [[inh|gem-pro|*fedwōr|t=four]].^(Kluge 2011|960)^(Wiktionary) The same numeral is [[osx|fiuwar]], [[ang|fēower]], [[ofs|fiūwer]], [[non|fjórir]] and [[got|𐍆𐌹𐌳𐍅𐍉𐍂|tr=fidwōr]], and today [[nl|vier]], [[en|four]] and [[sv|fyra]].^(Kluge 2011|960)^(Kroonen 2013)^(Pfeifer 1993) It continues [[ine-pro|*kʷetwṓr|t=four]], also found in [[sa|चत्वारः|tr=catvā́raḥ]], [[grc|τέσσαρες|tr=téssares]], [[la|quattuor]], [[sga|cethair]], [[lt|keturì]], [[cu|четыре|tr=četyre]] and [[txb|śtwer]].^(Kluge 2011|960)^(Pfeifer 1993) Its further origin is unclear.^(Kluge 2011|960)

+

+ The Germanic word begins with /f/ instead of the expected /hw/: Kroonen and Wiktionary explain this by the influence of the next numeral, [[gem-pro|*fimf|t=five]].^(Kroonen 2013)^(Wiktionary) Pfeifer instead sets up a form with /p/ for the labiovelar before the Germanic sound shift.^(Pfeifer 1993) The dental of Gothic is lost in West Germanic, where the forms point to [[gmw-pro|*fewar]];^(Kroonen 2013)^(Kluge 2011|960) Kroonen finds this hard to derive regularly from [[m|gem-pro|*fedwōr]] and suggests a dissimilation that started in the ordinal.^(Kroonen 2013)^(Kluge 2011|960) It is kept in [[ang|fyðer-]] in compounds and in [[frk|fitter-|t=four]] of the Malberg glosses of the Salic law.^(Kluge 2011|960)^(EWA|3, 264)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''fior'' is recorded from the 8th century in many texts and glosses, among them the Benedictine Rule, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^(EWA|3, 264)^(Schützeichel 2012|103)^(Köbler AHD) It was inflected like an ''i''-stem noun when it followed its noun or stood alone, but usually not before a noun.^(EWA|3, 264)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Middle High German still inflected the numeral in part (''viere'', ''vieren''), and Adelung around 1800 records an ''e'' added at the end of a clause, as in Luther's ''Ihrer viere trugen einen Gichtbrüchigen'' (Mark 2:3), but rejects it as bad usage.^(EWA|3, 264)^(Adelung 1793) Josua Maaler explains ''alle viere'' in 1561 as hands and feet, and Grimmelshausen has a dying creature that ''streckt alle viere von sich'';^(Paul 2002) today ''alle viere von sich strecken'' is to stretch out and relax.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Paul 2002)

+

+ The feminine noun ''die Vier'' names the figure, a card, the face of a die and a school mark.^(DWB|26, 277)^(Duden GWDS 1999) Fixed fours appear in phrases such as ''in seinen vier Wänden'' “at home” and ''seine vier Buchstaben'', a veiled word for the bottom.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 8th century – Old High German ''fior'' and ''fiorzug'' “forty” are recorded.^(EWA|3, 264)^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 9th century – ''fiorzehan'' “fourteen” appears.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 10th century – ''fiorteil'' “quarter”, the source of ''Viertel'', is recorded.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 16th century – ''Viereck'' “quadrilateral” appears as a noun.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2020)

+ * 1561 – Maaler records ''alle viere'' “hands and feet”.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Numeral===

+ # [[m|en|four|alt=Four]], the number 4: ''vier Stühle''.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ===Noun (die Vier)===

+ # The [[m|en|figure]] 4.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A playing card with four pips; four on a [[m|en|die]].^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+ # The school mark 4, “adequate”.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary DE)

+ # ''(colloquial)'' A bus or tram of route number 4.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[vierte]]

+ * [[Viertel]]

+ * [[vierzehn]]

+ * [[vierzig]]

+ * [[Viereck]]

+ * [[viereckig]]

+ * [[Vierling]]

+ * [[vierschrötig]]

+ * [[Geviert]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Quader]]

+ * [[Quadrant]]

+ * [[acht]]

+ * [[en|four]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Auf allen vieren'' is “on all fours”, on hands and feet.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Paul 2002) After the Second World War ''die großen Vier'' were the four great powers.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}