Jahr German · revision 35558

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=765, Old High German glosses|origins=ine-pro *i̯ēro-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /jaːr/, [jaːʁ], [jaːɐ̯]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''Jahr''' ''n'' (genitive Jahres or Jahrs, plural Jahre or Jahr, diminutive Jährchen n or Jährlein n)^(Wiktionary)

+ In the older language the plural was the same as the singular, ''jahr''; the modern ''Jahre'' was formed on the model of the masculine nouns.^(DWB|10, 2230) The old plural survives after numerals, as in Lessing's ''vier bis fünf jahr verreiset'' (“away for four or five years”).^(DWB|10, 2230)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|jār]], [[inh|goh|jār]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*jār]], [[inh|gem-pro|*jērą|t=year]].^(Kluge 2011|454)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Wiktionary) The same word is [[got|𐌾𐌴𐍂|tr=jēr]], [[non|ár]], [[ang|gēar]], [[ofs|jēr]] and [[osx|jār]], beside Old Saxon [[m|osx|gēr]].^(Kluge 2011|454)^(Kroonen 2013) Kluge lists [[nl|jaar]], [[en|year]], [[sv|år]] and [[is|ár]] as the modern forms.^(Kluge 2011|454)

+

+ Outside Germanic, Kluge compares, with the o-grade, [[grc|ὥρα|tr=hṓra|t=season, year, time, prime]] and the later [[m|grc|ὧρος|tr=hôros|t=year]], as well as [[ae|yār-|t=year]] and [[la|hōrnus|t=of this year]].^(Kluge 2011|454) Pfeifer adds [[cu|ꙗра|tr=jara|t=spring]] and reconstructs [[ine-pro|*i̯ēro-|t=year, summer]] beside [[m|ine-pro|*i̯ōro-]].^(Pfeifer 1993) Kroonen sets up a heteroclitic noun, nominative [[m|ine-pro|*ióh₁-r]], genitive [[m|ine-pro|*iéh₁-n-s]]: most languages added an r-suffix, but Avestan kept the old r/n inflection.^(Kroonen 2013) The Greek word is also the source of [[Uhr]], so that the two German words are doublets.^(Wiktionary)^(Duden 7 2020|401)

+

+ The original meaning is uncertain.^(Duden 7 2020|401) Kluge starts from “spring”: years were counted by springs, and the name of the season came to mean the whole year.^(Kluge 2011|454) Wahrig takes the same view.^(Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch) Pfeifer and Duden instead consider a noun from a long-vowel form of the root [[ine-pro|*ei-|t=to go]], also in [[m|la|eō|t=to go]], which would make the first sense “course, passage (of the sun)”.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2020|401) Kluge points out that the Germanic vowel does not fit the other languages and calls this connection very uncertain.^(Kluge 2011|454) The Grimms' dictionary had already found the vowels too far apart for a secure comparison.^(DWB|10, 2230)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''jār'' is first recorded in glosses of 765, and then in Isidor, the Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “year”.^(Köbler AHD)^(Schützeichel 2012|169) Schützeichel records phrases such as ''al thaz jār'' “the whole year through, always” and ''bī jārōn'' “over the years, in time”.^(Schützeichel 2012|169)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ According to Duden, the word played a minor part in common Germanic, because the year was mostly counted in winters: the word [[Winter]] also meant “year”.^(Duden 7 2020|401) Paul distinguishes old uses side by side: the year of growth and its seasons (still in [[Frühjahr]] and ''Spätjahr''), the calendar year (as in [[Neujahr]]), the year of one's life (''ein mann in seinen besten jahren'', in Gellert) and the year of account.^(Paul 2002) The medieval legal formula ''Jahr und Tag'', one year and six weeks (and three days), lives on as a fixed phrase for “a fairly long time”.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ The compound [[Jahrmarkt]] is already Old High German ''jārmarkāt'' (around 1000).^(Pfeifer 1993) [[Jahrhundert]] was coined in the 17th century to render Latin ''saeculum'', and in 1755 it was still criticised as un-German and unintelligible.^(Pfeifer 1993) [[Jahrzehnt]] and [[Jahrtausend]] followed its pattern in the 18th century, for Latin ''decennium'' and ''millennium''.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Paul 2002) [[Jahreszeit]] “season” dates from the 17th or 18th century.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2020|401) In Czech, ''jár'' was taken from German in the sense “school year”, and English uses ''Wanderjahr'', the year a journeyman travelled.^(LWP)

+

+ ==Timeline==

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

+ * Around 1000 – Old High German ''jārmarkāt'' “annual fair” is recorded.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 16th century – ''bejahrt'' “aged”, literally “provided with years”, appears.^(Pfeifer 1993)

+ * 1663 – Schottelius uses ''Jahrhundert'', which becomes the usual word for Latin ''saeculum''; in 1647 it had been translated ''Hundertjährung''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1730 – First record of ''Jahrzehnt''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1751 – First record of ''Jahrtausend''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1893 – English ''Wanderjahr'' is first recorded.^(LWP)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|year]]: a period of twelve months, the time in which the earth goes once round the [[m|en|sun]]; a calendar year: ''Im nächsten Jahr ziehen wir nach Leipzig.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # A year of a person's life, with regard to their [[m|en|age]]: ''Sie ist zwölf Jahre alt.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary DE)

+ # A year at school or college, a [[m|en|grade]] or year group.^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(astronomy)'' The time any planet takes to go round its star once.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[bejahrt]]

+ * [[Jahreszeit]]

+ * [[Jahrgang]]

+ * [[Jahrhundert]]

+ * [[jährlich]]

+ * [[Jahrmarkt]]

+ * [[Lichtjahr]]

+ * [[Neujahr]]

+ * [[Halbjahr]]

+ * [[jahrelang]]

+ * [[jähren]]

+ * [[verjähren]]

+ * [[Jahrzehnt]]

+ * [[Jahrtausend]]

+ * [[Jahrbuch]]

+ * [[jährig]]

+ * [[minderjährig]]

+ * [[volljährig]]

+ * [[Jährling]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[heuer]]

+ * [[Uhr]]

+ * [[en|year]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Jahr und Tag'' (''seit Jahr und Tag'', ''vor Jahr und Tag'') “a long time” goes back to a legal term of one year and six weeks.^(Paul 2002) ''In den besten Jahren'' is “in the prime of life”, and ''zwischen den Jahren'' is the time between Christmas and New Year.^(Paul 2002)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}