Wert German · revision 35261

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

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /veːrt/, [veːɐ̯t], [vɛɐ̯t]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Wert''' ''m'' (genitive Wertes or Werts, plural Werte)^(Wiktionary)

+ The noun was neuter in Old High German; the masculine appears in Middle High German, probably on the model of [[Kauf]] and [[Preis]].^(Pfeifer 1993)^(DWB|29, 460) The neuter is still found here and there in the 16th and 17th centuries.^(DWB|29, 460)^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|wert]], [[inh|goh|werd]], [[inh|gem-pro|*werþą|t=worth, price]], the adjective [[wert]] used as a noun, a step taken in all the Germanic languages.^(Kluge 2011|983)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Wiktionary) The same noun is [[got|𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸|tr=wairþ]], [[non|verð]], [[ang|weorþ]], [[ofs|werth]] and [[osx|werth]], beside the adjective [[m|got|𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌸𐍃|tr=wairþs]], [[m|gem-pro|*werþaz|t=worthy]].^(Kluge 2011|983)^(Kroonen 2013)^(Orel 2003) Related words are [[nl|waard]], [[en|worth]] and [[sv|värd]].^(Kluge 2011|983) The final /t/ of the uninflected form was carried into the inflected ones, while the older /d/ survives in [[Würde]] and [[würdig]].^(Wiktionary)^(DWB|29, 444)

+

+ Its further origin is disputed.^(DWB|29, 444) Kluge, Pfeifer and the Grimms' dictionary connect it with [[ine-pro|*wert-|t=to turn]], the root of [[werden]], through a sense “turned towards, set against”, hence “having an equivalent”;^(Kluge 2011|983)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(DWB|29, 444) Pfeifer and the Grimms compare [[-wärts]], [[la|versus|t=towards, against]] and [[sga|frith-|t=against]], and the parallel of [[m|la|pretium|t=price, value]].^(Pfeifer 1993)^(DWB|29, 444) Duden calls the link only possible,^(Duden 7 2020|930) and Kroonen leaves the origin open.^(Kroonen 2013) Kluge also mentions [[cy|gwerth|t=price]] and [[ae|auuarətā-|t=valuable object, property]];^(Kluge 2011|983) Kroonen and the Grimms take the Welsh word as a loan from Germanic.^(Kroonen 2013)^(DWB|29, 444)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''werd'' is recorded from the end of the 8th century, in glosses and the Monsee fragments, then in the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker.^(Köbler AHD)^(Schützeichel 2012|381)^(Kluge 2011|983) It meant “value, price, estimate”;^(Schützeichel 2012|381)^(Köbler AHD) the Grimms find the sense “price” first, then “standing, esteem” and “quality”.^(DWB|29, 460)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ In Middle High German ''wert'' covered the purchase price, an article of value, goods, rank and honour, and esteem.^(Pfeifer 1993) Until the early 19th century the main sense was “price”; in money matters Paul cites the value of banknotes from 1561, and Marx made the word a term of economics, the labour embodied in a commodity.^(Paul 2002) In mathematics it came to mean the value of a quantity.^(Paul 2002) The sense “quality, usefulness” was applied to persons from Middle High German on and spread in the 18th century, giving phrases such as ''moralischer Wert'' and ''innerer Wert''.^(Paul 2002) The Grimms note that it became a key term of economics and philosophy, whose content was often disputed.^(DWB|29, 460)

+

+ Derivatives were formed late: [[werten]] goes back to Old High German ''werdōn'' (8th century), but [[abwerten]] dates from the 18th century and became common in the 20th, [[bewerten]] from the second half of the 19th, [[entwerten]] in its modern sense from the first half of the 19th and [[verwerten]] from the 19th.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2020|930) [[wertlos]] appears at the beginning of the 19th century, [[wertvoll]] in its first half, and ''Wertpapier'' and ''Werturteil'' later in the 19th.^(Duden 7 2020|930) The word was borrowed into Czech and Slovak as ''vert'' “value, price”.^(LWP)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * Late 8th century – Old High German ''werd'' in glosses and the Monsee fragments.^(Köbler AHD)^(Kluge 2011|983)

+ * Middle High German – the masculine gender appears beside the neuter.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(DWB|29, 460)

+ * 1561 – ''Wert'' is used of the value of banknotes.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 16th–17th century – last neuter uses.^(DWB|29, 460)

+ * 18th century – ''abwerten'' is first recorded.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * Early 19th century – ''wertlos'' and ''wertvoll'' appear.^(Duden 7 2020|930)

+ * Second half of the 19th century – ''bewerten'' and ''Werturteil''.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # The [[m|en|price]] or market value of something: ''Der Wert des Grundstücks hat sich verdoppelt.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(Marxism)'' The social labour embodied in a commodity, measured by the working time needed to produce it.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Paul 2002)

+ # ''(plural)'' Valuable objects, [[m|en|asset|alt=assets]]: ''Bei dem Brand gingen große Werte verloren.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+ # Importance, usefulness or quality, the [[m|en|worth]] of a person or thing;^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary) ''Wert auf etwas legen'' “to set store by something”.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(often plural)'' A moral or social [[m|en|ideal]], a [[m|en|value]] held by a society: ''christliche Werte''.^(Wiktionary)^(Wiktionary DE)

+ # A number or measured quantity, the result of a [[m|en|measurement]]; the value of a variable.^(Wiktionary)^(Wiktionary DE)^(Paul 2002)

+ # A postage [[m|en|stamp]] of a given face value.^(Wiktionary DE)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[werten]]

+ * [[Wertung]]

+ * [[abwerten]]

+ * [[aufwerten]]

+ * [[bewerten]]

+ * [[entwerten]]

+ * [[verwerten]]

+ * [[wertlos]]

+ * [[wertvoll]]

+ * [[Wertpapier]]

+ * [[Werturteil]]

+ * [[gleichwertig]]

+ * [[minderwertig]]

+ * [[vollwertig]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[wert]]

+ * [[Würde]]

+ * [[würdig]]

+ * [[werden]]

+ * [[en|worth]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ Kluge lists a separate ''Wert'' (also ''Werd'', ''Wört'') “river island”, a variant of [[Werder]], from Middle High German ''wert'' and Old High German ''werid'', whose origin is unclear.^(Kluge 2011|983) Lexer records the Middle High German word as “island, peninsula, raised dry land between marshes”.^(Lexer 1872|3, 796)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}