Berliner German · revision 35301

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /bɛʁˈliːnɐ/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Berliner''' ''m'' (genitive Berliners, plural Berliner, feminine Berlinerin)^(Wiktionary)

+ As an adjective the word is indeclinable and used only before a noun.^(Wiktionary) Adelung already describes it as an invariable adjective.^(Adelung 1793|1, 883)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|de|Berlin|-er]], the name of the city with the suffix that forms names of inhabitants.^(Wiktionary)^(Wiktionary DE)^(Duden GWDS 1999) The same form serves as an indeclinable adjective “of Berlin”.^(Wiktionary)^(Adelung 1793|1, 883)

+

+ The name of the pastry, recorded from the 19th century, is shortened from a phrase with [[Pfannkuchen]] “pancake”,^(Kluge 2011|111)^(Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch)^(Wiktionary) and Wiktionary also gives a fuller form with [[Ballen]] “ball”.^(Wiktionary) The German-language Wiktionary says that the pastry was first made in Berlin around 1756 as the “Berlin pancake”, and regions shortened that name in either direction, keeping only the adjective or only the noun.^(Wiktionary DE)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Adelung (1793) records the noun for a person born in or coming from Berlin, with the feminine ''Berlinerin'', and the adjective for works of art invented or made there: ''Berliner Blau'', the blue pigment also called Prussian blue, invented in Berlin at the beginning of the 18th century, and ''das Berliner Eisen'', a fox trap with two hoops.^(Adelung 1793|1, 883) Campe (1807) adds a light four-seated travelling coach invented in Berlin, also called ''die Berline'', and names ''Berliner Porzellan''.^(Campe 1807|1, 472b)

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+ The pastry name spread in the 19th century; cookery books of the late 19th century give recipes for ''Berliner Pfannkuchen'' across the German-speaking area.^(Wiktionary DE)^(Kluge 2011|111) English took ''Berliner'' “a native or inhabitant of Berlin” in 1859.^(LWP) In Czech and Slovak the word became [[cs|perlinčan|t=Protestant]].^(LWP)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 1793 – Adelung records the noun and the adjective, as in ''Berliner Blau''.^(Adelung 1793|1, 883)

+ * 1807 – Campe records ''Berliner'' for a travelling coach invented in Berlin.^(Campe 1807|1, 472b)

+ * 1859 – English borrows ''Berliner'' “inhabitant of Berlin”.^(LWP)

+ * 19th century – ''Berliner'' appears as a shortening of ''Berliner Pfannkuchen''.^(Kluge 2011|111)^(Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A native or [[m|en|inhabitant]] of [[Berlin]]: ''Ihr Großvater war ein echter Berliner.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)^(Wiktionary DE)

+ # A round [[m|en|doughnut]] of yeast dough, fried in fat and usually filled with jam and dusted with sugar.^(Wiktionary)^(Wiktionary DE)^(Kluge 2011|111)

+

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Of, from or relating to Berlin (indeclinable, only before a noun): ''die Berliner Museen'', ''ein Berliner Verlag''.^(Wiktionary)^(Adelung 1793|1, 883)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[Berlinerin]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Berlin]]

+ * [[Pfannkuchen]]

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+ ==Usage notes==

+ Kluge records a separate, archaic ''Berliner'' from thieves' cant, meaning the knapsack of travelling journeymen; it may be a reinterpretation of Latin ''pellīnus'' “made of skin”, and after it the cant formed ''Charlottenburger'' for a shoulder bag and ''Potsdamer'' for a small travelling bundle, from districts of Berlin.^(Kluge 2011|111)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}