überhaupt German · revision 35176

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=compound|attested=14th century}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˌyːbɐˈhaʊ̯pt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''überhaupt'''^(Wiktionary)

+ Luther and other writers of the 16th and 17th centuries used umlauted forms such as ''uberheupt''; dialects have ''überhaupts'' with an adverbial ⟨s⟩.^(DWB|23, 302)^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a fusion [[af|de|über|Haupt]], from the late medieval phrase [[gmh|über houbet|t=over the head(s)]], with the accusative of the noun.^(Kluge 2011|938)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Paul 2002) It began as a term of the cattle trade: to buy or sell in this way was to deal in a lump sum, without counting the single animals, the “heads”.^(Kluge 2011|938)^(Duden 7 2020|883)^(Pfeifer 1993) It was then generalised to legal and business dealings where a lump sum stood against an itemised account.^(Kluge 2011|938)

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+ The present sense “in general” was at first expressed by [[überall]], which überhaupt displaced in this use in the 18th century.^(Kluge 2011|938)^(Paul 2002)

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+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Kluge dates the word to the 14th century and Pfeifer to the 15th.^(Kluge 2011|938)^(Pfeifer 1993) In Middle High German the phrase also had a local sense, as in ''über houbet vehten'' “to fight overhead”, that is, against the current.^(DWB|23, 302)

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+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Until the 18th century ''überhaupt kaufen'' meant to buy goods as a whole lot, as Stieler records in 1691, and the word meant “altogether, in total”: Goethe writes in a letter of 1815 ''Wir zahlen dafür überhaupt 48 Thlr.'' (“we pay 48 thalers for it altogether”).^(Paul 2002)^(Pfeifer 1993) Placed after a noun it came to mean “as such, in general”, as in Kant's ''Kritik der reinen Vernunft'' (1787).^(Paul 2002)

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+ In the 18th century it became general and was used to strengthen negations, ''überhaupt nicht'' “not at all”;^(Pfeifer 1993)^(DWB|23, 302) as a particle in questions (“actually, at all”) Pfeifer dates it to the end of the 17th century.^(Pfeifer 1993) The philosophical sense passed into English in 1875, in phrases such as ''Bewusstsein überhaupt'', and the word was borrowed into Dutch in the early 20th century.^(LWP)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 14th century – First record, according to Kluge.^(Kluge 2011|938)

+ * 15th century – First record, according to Pfeifer.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 1691 – Stieler records ''überhaupt kaufen'' “to buy in bulk”.^(Paul 2002)

+ * End of the 17th century – Used as a particle in questions.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 1787 – Kant uses it after a noun, “as such”.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 18th century – ''überhaupt nicht'' “not at all”; the word displaces ''überall'' in the sense “in general”.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Kluge 2011|938)

+ * 1875 – Borrowed into English in philosophical use.^(LWP)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adverb===

+ # In [[m|en|general]], on the whole: ''Er ist überhaupt selten pünktlich''.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # With a negation: at all: ''Das habe ich überhaupt nicht gewusst''.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # With [[und]]: besides, apart from that.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+ # [[m|en|especially|alt=Especially]]: ''Man sollte, überhaupt im Winter, warme Schuhe tragen''.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+

+ ===Particle===

+ # In questions: [[m|en|actually]], at all: ''Weißt du überhaupt, wie spät es ist?''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

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+ ==Related words==

+ * [[über]]

+ * [[Haupt]]

+ * [[überall]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}