Dorf German · revision 35323

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 765, Old High German glosses|origins=gem-pro *þurpą}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /dɔrf/, [dɔʁf], [dɔrf]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Dorf''' ''n'' (genitive Dorfes or Dorfs, plural Dörfer, diminutive Dörfchen n or Dörflein n)^(Wiktionary)

+ The plural in ''-er'' is found from the 13th century and prevails from the 14th and 15th; the older plural ''dorfe'', dative ''dorfen'', still occurs until the 18th century.^(DWB2|6, 1259)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|dorf]], [[inh|goh|dorf|alt=dorf, thorf]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*þorp]], [[inh|gem-pro|*þurpą]].^(Kluge 2011|212)^(Wiktionary) The same word is [[got|𐌸𐌰𐌿𐍂𐍀|tr=þaurp|t=farmland, field]], [[non|þorp|t=farmstead, village]], [[ang|þorp|t=village, estate]], [[ofs|thorp]] and [[osx|thorp]], continued in [[nl|dorp]] and [[en|thorp]], now mostly in place names.^(Kluge 2011|212)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Kroonen 2013) In Old High German the ⟨f⟩ arose from a further shift of /pf/; in the Rhineland the unshifted /p/ was written until about 1200.^(EWA|2, 725)

+

+ Outside Germanic it is usually compared with [[lt|troba|alt=trobà|t=house, building]], [[lv|trāba|t=hut]], [[mga|treb|t=house, homestead]] and [[cy|tref|t=town, home]].^(Kluge 2011|212)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Kroonen 2013) Pfeifer, Duden and the revised Grimm dictionary derive these from a root [[ine-pro|*treb-|t=beam construction, dwelling]] and add [[la|trabs|t=beam]], so that the first sense would be a building, a house.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2014)^(DWB2|6, 1259) Kluge prefers to start from “clearing”, comparing [[ru|теребить|tr=terebítʹ|t=to clear, pluck]], and doubts that the word ever meant “beam”.^(Kluge 2011|212)^(Pfeifer 1993) Kroonen notes that it cannot be separated from [[non|þyrpast|t=to crowd, throng]], so that Germanic would have kept an original sense “to gather”.^(Kroonen 2013)

+

+ The Germanic word also shows the sense “crowd, herd”, and a Latinised form of it in the Alamannic law may be the source of [[fr|troupeau]] and [[fr|troupe]], and so of [[Truppe]]; both the connection and the French derivation are disputed.^(Kluge 2011|212)^(DWB2|6, 1259)^(Wiktionary) The Grimms derived it from [[la|turba|t=crowd]] and [[grc|τύρβη|tr=túrbē|t=disorder]], which Kroonen rejects.^(DWB|2, 1276)^(Kroonen 2013)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''dorf'' is first recorded in glosses of about 765, then in the Tatian, Otfrid, Notker and Williram, meaning “village, farmstead, estate” and also “quarter of a town”.^(Köbler AHD)^(Schützeichel 2012|75) It named a rural, mainly farming settlement, rarely a single farm and usually a group, as distinct from a ''burg'', a fortified or larger place.^(EWA|2, 725)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Kluge thinks the sense “group of farmsteads” arose in newly settled lands, where for safety several farms were built together.^(Kluge 2011|212) Later the word also named the inhabitants; since the 12th century it has usually meant the smallest self-governing community, as opposed to ''Stadt'', ''Markt'' and ''Flecken''.^(EWA|2, 725) In Swiss German ''z Dorf gehen'' means to go visiting, a usage Paul explains from scattered settlements where the village was the meeting place by the church and inn; the revised Grimm dictionary treats this masculine ''Dorf'' “gathering, visit” as a word of its own.^(Paul 2002)^(DWB2|6, 1259)

+

+ Derivatives include ''dörfisch'' “boorish” (first half of the 16th century), ''dörflich'' (16th century) and ''Dörfler'' (18th century); Middle High German ''dörper'' “peasant” lies behind ''Tölpel''.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2014) ''Böhmische Dörfer'', things one does not understand, is recorded from 1595 and spread during the Thirty Years' War.^(Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch) ''Potemkinsche Dörfer'', sham façades, goes back to accounts of Potemkin around 1800, and ''das globale Dorf'' to the sociologist Marshall McLuhan.^(Paul 2002)^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 765 – Old High German ''dorf'' appears in glosses.^(Köbler AHD)

+ * 12th century – ''Dorf'' comes to mean the smallest self-governing community.^(EWA|2, 725)

+ * 13th century – The plural in ''-er'' appears.^(DWB2|6, 1259)

+ * 16th century – ''dörfisch'' and ''dörflich'' appear.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 1595 – First record of ''böhmische Dörfer''.^(Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch)

+ * 18th century – ''Dörfler'' “villager” appears.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 1802 – The image of Potemkin's sham villages appears after Kotzebue.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|village]], a small rural settlement: ''Sie wuchs in einem kleinen Dorf in der Eifel auf.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # The inhabitants of a village: ''Das ganze Dorf kam zum Fest.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary DE)

+ # ''(figurative, pejorative)'' A [[m|en|backwater]], a town without urban life.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[dörflich]]

+ * [[Dörfler]]

+ * [[dörfisch]]

+ * [[Kirchdorf]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Tölpel]]

+ * [[Truppe]]

+ * [[en|thorp]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Jemandem böhmische Dörfer sein'' is to be quite unintelligible to someone;^(Duden GWDS 1999) ''potemkinsche Dörfer'' are a sham, something that does not exist;^(Duden GWDS 1999) ''das globale Dorf'' is the world drawn together by mass communication.^(Duden GWDS 1999) ''Auf die Dörfer gehen'' in skat is to lead side suits instead of trumps.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}