tot German · revision 36062

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=8th century|origins=gem-pro *daudaz}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /toːt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''tot''' (strong nominative masculine singular toter, comparative (rare) toter, superlative (rare) am totesten)^(Wiktionary)

+ Older spellings are ''todt'' and ''tod''.^(Wiktionary)^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|gmh|tōt]], [[inh|goh|tōt]], [[inh|gmw-pro|*daud]], [[inh|gem-pro|*daudaz|t=dead]].^(Kluge 2011|922)^(Wiktionary)^(Kroonen 2013) The same word is [[got|𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃|tr=dauþs]], [[non|dauðr]], [[ang|dēad]], [[ofs|dād]], [[osx|dōd]] and [[nl|dood]], and English [[m|en|dead]] continues the Old English word.^(Kluge 2011|922)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Kroonen 2013)

+

+ It was originally a past participle with the suffix [[ine-pro|*-tós|alt=*-to-]], of a Germanic verb meaning “to die”, so it meant “having died”.^(Kluge 2011|922)^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Kroonen 2013) That verb is found in [[goh|touwen|t=to die]], [[gmh|töuwen]], [[osx|dōian]] and the strong [[non|deyja]], from which English took [[m|en|die]], and it has since been lost in German.^(Pfeifer 1993)^(Duden 7 2020|864) Kroonen reconstructs the participle as [[ine-pro|*dʰowHtós|alt=*dʰou(H)-tó-]].^(Kroonen 2013)

+

+ Further back, Pfeifer compares [[ru|давить|tr=davítʹ|t=to press, strangle]], [[sga|duine|t=human being]] (“a mortal”) and, less certainly, [[la|fūnus|t=funeral]], and sets up a root [[ine-pro|*dʰew-|t=to fade away, faint, die]].^(Pfeifer 1993) Duden places the verb in the word group of [[Dunst]].^(Duden 7 2020|864)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Old High German ''tōt'' is one of the earliest recorded words, found in glosses (perhaps after 765), the Hildebrandslied, Isidor, the Monsee fragments, Tatian, Otfrid and Notker, meaning “dead”.^(Köbler AHD)^(Schützeichel 2012|333) The phrase ''tōt werdan'' meant “to die”.^(Schützeichel 2012|333)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The word soon took many transferred senses: “dead” of trees and limbs, “empty, without life” in ''das Tote Meer'' (the Dead Sea, recorded in 1350), and “without value or use”, as in Goethe's ''totes Gestein''.^(Paul 2002) Adelung records ''todte Farbe'' (a dull colour) and ''todte Augen'';^(Paul 2002) ''toter Winkel'' was first a term of fortification and now names the blind spot of a car mirror.^(Paul 2002) Goethe wrote of ''tote Sprachen'', languages no longer spoken, and ''totes Kapital'' is money that earns no interest.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ In verb phrases ''tot'' became part of compounds such as ''totschlagen'' (Luther: ''Kain … schlug jn tod'', Genesis 4:8), whence ''die Zeit totschlagen'' “to kill time” and the legal term [[Totschlag]], manslaughter as opposed to murder.^(Paul 2002) In 19th-century children's language ''totgehen'' meant “to die”.^(Paul 2002) In recent youth slang ''tot'' describes something boring, embarrassing or bad.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 8th century – Old High German ''tōt'' is recorded.^(Kluge 2011|922)^(Köbler AHD)

+ * 1350 – First record of ''das Tote Meer''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1750 – First record of ''totes Kapital''.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 1784 – Jacobsson records ''toter Winkel'', a term of fortification.^(Paul 2002)

+ * 19th century – Children's language uses ''totgehen'' “to die”.^(Paul 2002)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # [[m|en|dead]], no longer alive: ''Auf dem Feldweg lag ein toter Fuchs.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # No longer existing as a living being, [[m|en|deceased]]: ''Der Vermisste wurde für tot erklärt.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+ # No longer organically alive, withered; of a language, no longer spoken: ''ein toter Ast'', ''eine tote Sprache''.^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Paul 2002)

+ # Inorganic, [[m|en|lifeless]]: ''tote Materie''.^(Duden GWDS 1999)

+ # ''(figurative)'' Not working, not connected: ''Die Telefonleitung ist tot.''^(Duden GWDS 1999)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(youth slang)'' Boring, bad, embarrassing.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[töten]]

+ * [[Tote]]

+ * [[totschlagen]]

+ * [[Totschlag]]

+ * [[totschweigen]]

+ * [[mausetot]]

+ * [[mundtot]]

+ * [[scheintot]]

+ * [[untot]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[Tod]]

+ * [[en|dead]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Mehr tot als lebendig'' (“more dead than alive”) is to be completely exhausted, and ''tot und begraben'' (colloquial) is long forgotten.^(Duden GWDS 1999) The noun ''Tote'' “the dead person” is the adjective used as a noun, Old High German ''tōto''.^(Duden 7 2020|864)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}