Bevölkerung German · revision 35249

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=1691, Stieler|origins=gem-pro *fulką}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /bəˈfœlkəʁʊŋ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Bevölkerung''' ''f'' (genitive Bevölkerung, plural Bevölkerungen)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|de|bevölkern|-ung|t1=to populate]].^(Wiktionary)^(Wiktionary DE)^(DWB2|5, 55) The verb (17th century) is formed with the prefix [[be-]] from [[Volk]] “people”.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Kluge 2011|962)

+

+ The noun is [[goh|folc]], [[gem-pro|*fulką|t=troop of warriors; people]], the same word as [[osx|folk]], [[ang|folc]] (now [[en|folk]]) and [[non|folk]].^(Kluge 2011|962)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(EWA|3, 451) Its further origin is uncertain: Kluge, Pfeifer and Duden think it probably comes from the root of [[voll]], [[ine-pro|*pelh₁-|t=to fill]], comparing [[la|populus|t=people]] and [[grc|πλῆθος|tr=plêthos|t=crowd, multitude]], so that the Germanic word first meant “the multitude of fighting men”.^(Kluge 2011|962)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2020|910)^(Köbler AHD)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The first record is in Stieler's dictionary of 1691, in a list of formations with ''Volk'', where ''Bevölkerung'' renders Latin “sending out colonists”.^(DWB2|5, 55) Pfeifer dates it to the end of the 17th century, Duden to the 18th.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2020|910)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ At first the word meant the act of populating, the settling of a land or the growth of its numbers: in 1732 a journal speaks of the first ''Bevölkerung'' of Europe, and a translation of Rousseau (1756) of the ''überschwängliche Bevölkerung'' “excessive increase of people” that the state of nature would bring.^(DWB2|5, 55) This sense became rare and was dying out in the 20th century.^(DWB2|5, 55)^(Duden GWDS 1999) The Grimms already give the sense “inhabitants”, which is now the usual one; the Grimms' revision compares French ''population''.^(DWB|1, 1757)^(DWB2|5, 55)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1691 – First record, in Stieler's dictionary.^(DWB2|5, 55)

+ * 1732 – Used of the first settlement of Europe.^(DWB2|5, 55)

+ * 1756 – A translation of Rousseau uses it for the increase of people.^(DWB2|5, 55)

+ * 20th century – The sense “act of populating” dies out.^(DWB2|5, 55)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|population]], all the inhabitants of an area: ''Die Bevölkerung wurde vor dem Sturm gewarnt.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(rare)'' The act of populating an area.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[Bevölkerungsdichte]]

+ * [[Weltbevölkerung]]

+ * [[Zivilbevölkerung]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[bevölkern]]

+ * [[Volk]]

+ * [[völkisch]]

+ * [[en|folk]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}