Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German word of the Day. This time with yet another one of those words that are quite common in everyday German, that somehow get overlooked by textbooks. Ladies and gentlemen… get ready for a look at the meaning of
erledigen
And because erledigen isn’t only really useful itself but also has quite an interesting family, we’ll start thousands and thousands of years ago, with the hyper ancient, allegedly incredibly good looking Indo-Europeans.
More specifically, with the Indo-European language root *el.
The core idea of this root was bent, limber and we can actually pretty much see the original root in the German and English name of a bodypart. I’ll give you a hint… its main purpose is bending.
I’m talking about … the elbow, der Ellenbogen in German.
- “Nimm deine Ellenbogen vom Tisch.”
“Du bist nicht meine Mutter.”
“Ich BIN deine Mutter!” - “Take your elbows off the table.”
“You’re not my mom.”
“I AM your mom!”
- Ellenbogengesellschaft ist scheiße.
- Elbow society sucks.
In German, there’s also the word die Elle, which is one of the bones in the lower arm (ulna) and an old unit of measurement (ell). And even though the lower part of an arm is usually not that long, the word ellenlang somehow ended up with a negative sense of super long.
- Thomas erklärt Maria in einem ellenlangen Monolog, warum er nicht abgewaschen hat.
- Thomas explains to Maria in a interminable/lengthy monologue, why he didn’t do the dishes.
Well, I guess if the monologue has the length of a lower arm in print then it can be quite lengthy. But anyway, the elbow is actually not the only body related word that comes from the Indo European root *el. We mentioned that it carried the notion of limber. Well, guess where the word limber comes from :).
And the same goes for the word for the most moveable body parts… the limbs. Quite obvious, right? Despite that I never noticed how close limb and limber really are.
Anyway, the German counterpart of limb is das Glied.
Glied
On first sight, the “i” seems to be the only thing they have in common, but the connection becomes more apparent once you know that Glied is actually a ge-form. It used to be Geliethe, referring to the whole, the sum of bendable parts.
And if you’re now like “Wow, that’s really interesting.” then you’ll love the book that I have been promising for like five years. I know, I sound like I’m pulling a George R.R. Martin on you, but it’s definitely coming :).
Anyway, let’s look at a few examples for das Glied.
- Gliederschmerzen sind ein typisches Symptom von einer ernsten Erkältung.
- Limb pain is a typical symptom of a serious cold.
(note that it’s plural in German)
- Legt euch auf die Matte und dehnt alle Gliedmaßen aus.
- Lie down on the mat and stretch all limbs!
(only exists in plural)
- Eine Kette ist nur so stark wie das schwächste Glied.
- A chain is only as strong as the weakest (chain) link.
As you can see in the last example, it’s also the word for the link of a chain. Makes sense, I think. I mean, the link is the bendable part of the chain.
And what’s also worth mentioning is that Glied is usually used in plural in the sense of body parts. Because in singular, it refers to one specific body part. This poem from Goethe might give you a hint.
Gerne der Zeiten gedenk’ ich, da alle Glieder gelenkig – bis auf eins.
Doch die Zeiten sind vorüber, steif geworden alle Glieder – bis auf eins.
Yes, that really is THE Goethe. What he’s saying in the poem is basically that he misses the days when all his members were limber, except one because now all members are stiff, except one. And with the one he is referring to… well.. his little Johann, as we say in German. His member.
And speaking of member… that actually brings us right to another really useful member of the family: das Mitglied, which is the German word for member in the more common sense of belonging. If you’re wondering why, just recall that Glied was also the word for a link of a chain. A Mitglied is basically a part of a whole.
Oh and just in case you were wondering: yes, technically it means “with a member” and yes, there’s a pun to be made there.
Anyway, examples
- Die Partei hat viele Mitglieder.
- The party has a lot of members.
- Die Mitgliedschaft bei Yourdailygerman verlängert sich nicht automatisch.
- The membership at Yourdailygerman does not auto-renew.
And then, we also need to mention the verb gliedern which is about dividing something into sections and the corresponding noun die Gliederung.
- “Wie weit bist du mit deinem Essay?”
“Ich habe noch nichts geschrieben, aber die Gliederung ist fertig.” - “How far are you with your essay?”
“I haven’t really started writing, but the structure is done.”
- Berlin ist in 12 Bezirke gegliedert.
- Berlin is divided/grouped into 12 districts.
Cool. So this was the word das Glied and its close relatives.
But that wasn’t our actual word of the day yet. Remember… that was erledigen.
And the next step toward that is the adjective ledig.
ledig
Do you remember the super ancient root *el that we learned about? Ledig is another offspring of that. Its original sense was simply free, unrestricted but eventually it focused on a more narrow meaning, that’ll make perfect sense to all those of you who have been in a long relationship or worse… uh… I mean… more serious. Ledig is the official word for not married. As in never been married.
- Familien-Status: ledig, verheiratet, geschieden, verwitwet
- Family status: single not married, married, divorced, widowed.
What makes this adjective useful is the fact that it is at the core of a few other words. The first one is lediglich, which is a somewhat fancy alternative for only. I tried to find a connection between the idea of free and the idea of simply, but I wasn’t too successful to be honest. Maybe something like “little burden”, “almost free”. Not sure, if that makes sense to you. Anyway, lediglich is not a word you need to use yourself, but you’ll see it sooner or later in texts.
- “Das geht dich gar nichts an. Ich habe ein Recht auf meine Privatssphäre.”
“Bleib ruhig. Ich wollte lediglich wissen, wann du nach Hause kommst.” - “That’s none of your business. I have a right to privacy.”
“Chill out. I just wanted to know when you’ll come home.”
Also primarily found in writing is the verb entledigen. The proper full phrasing is actually sich einer Sache entledigen (with a Genitive), and the meaning is to rid oneself of something. That fits quite well with the notion of free that ledig used to carry.
- Europa und Nordamerika entledigen sich ihres Mülls, indem sie ihn nach China und Afrika verschiffen.
- Europe and North America rid themselves of their garbage by shipping it to China and Afrika.
And last but not least we’ve finally reached our actual word of the day … erledigen
erledigen
Originally, erledigen was about setting something free. But then the old Germanic tribesmen started using it in the sense of getting tasks done because they thought of tasks as pent up energy that needs to be released. Okay… no, I just made that up. I actually don’t know why the meaning shifted. But shift it did, and today erledigen is a quite common option for the idea of taking care of something in the sense of getting it done. And it’s especially common in everyday German in context where you don’t really want to say what exactly it is that you’re doing.
- “Ich habe alles von meiner To Do Liste erledigt, und es ist erst mittags.”
“Meinst du die To-Do-Liste, wo nur draufsteht: aufstehen?” - “I did everything on my to do list and it’s only noon. ”
“Do you mean the to-do list where it only says: get up?”
- “Kommst du heute zu unserem BBQ?”
“Ja, aber ich weiß noch nicht, wann. Ich muss vorher noch was erledigen.” - “Are you going to come to our BBQ today?”
“Yeah, but I don’t know when yet. I have to do something/take care of something before.”
- Ich muss ein paar Erledigungen machen.
- I have to run some errands.
Also common is the phrasing sich erledigen, in which the tasks basically take care of themselves. Or not.
- Thomas… die Wäsche erledigt sich nicht von alleine.
- Thomas… the laundry won’t take care of itself.
- “Warum hast du mich vorhin angerufen?”
“Ach so… ja. Das hat sich erledigt. Aber danke.” - “Why did you call me earlier?”
“Oh yeah… that took care of itself/nevermind. But thanks.”
Especially the second one is a really common phrasing and often a good translation for never mind, so you should definitely add that to your active vocabulary.
Besides the main meaning, erledigen also carries the idea of killing someone, which is kind of a morbid take on the whole free-idea. And the ge-form erledigt is a somewhat common colloquial way to say that you’re exhausted.
- Puh… ich bin erledigt.
- Puh… I’m k.o. /exhausted.
And because I don’t want you to feel completely erledigt after this and we actually have erledigt all on the to do list , we’ll wrap it up here.
Hooray :).
This was our look at the meaning of erledigen, Glied and a few other useful words. As usual, you can test how much you remember by taking the little quiz I have prepared for you. Of course, if you have any questions or suggestions about today just leave me a comment. And if you’re not a Mitglied of yourdailygerman yet, it’s time to take care of that.
I hope you liked it and see you next time :)
Danke von den worten. Du habst wessenlich Erledigungen machen!!!
Danke dir!!
Überraschenderweise gibt es auf russisch auch diese zweite Beteutung von “das Glied” im Singular, die ziemlich oft verwendet wird. Anscheinend ist Deutsch nicht die einzige Sprache, wo man “es” entweder als einen “bedingungsweise beweglichen” Körperteil oder als einen wichtigen Mitglieder des Körpers betrachtet ))) Kennt jemand andere Beispiele ? )
Ha, ja das ist interessant :). Also in English geht das auch mit “member” aber mehr weiß ich nicht.
Hoffentlich meldet sich jemand der Arabich oder Chinesisch spricht oder so eine Sprache :)
Ich habe gestern diesen Beitrag gelesen und heute schon drei Mal den Begriff ‘lediglich’ in den Arbeitspapieren gefunden :)
Ganz toll. Danke sehr
LOVED this, as usual. Even managed 7/7 on the quiz which means that all your jokes helped get the content into my head!
Excellent content!!!
Danke :)!
The imperative of “to lie” is “lie”, as in “lie down”. Maybe you meant “lay” as in “lay it on the table” or even “lay yourself down>
I wasn’t sure about that one, thanks :)!!
Great piece, as usual -thank you.
Danke dir :)!
The word Ellenbogen for elbows is a very unusual plural form isn’t it. I’m curious about that. Any comment?
It’s in essence the plural of “Bogen”… der Bogen – die Bogen. Singular and plural look the same here. Not super common, but not special either.
Why do you think it’s unusual?
Am I a Member? Where is work out section!
What do you mean with Work Out Section? Do you mean the quizz?
And I don’t know if you’re a member or not. I can check but I need your email address for that. Could you send me an email about these kinds of questions?
Loved it to no end, especially the diachronic approach! Vielen Dank, Emanuel!
Danke :)!! (had to look up diachronic, new word for me :)
Native English speaker, college English major, and I’ve done almost 50 trips around the sun–I had never heard it either, so don’t feel too bad.
*relief intensifies :)
Ha! Thanks for the funny Goethe poem, had never heard of that.
Hello! Love your posts! By the way, there is a strong connection to the English words simple, to simplify, simplification and simply. For example, in one of your examples, the response, ‘I just wanted to know when you would be home.’ sounds defensive as would using the word ‘only’. However, perfectly correct, and far less defensive, to say, ‘I simply wanted to know when you would be home.’ Additionally, completing my to do list would mean that I am simplifying it (and my life…). And, by the way, simple and limb sound kinda similar, old Mitglieds, perhaps!
Oh wow, that’s interesting. I didn’t know there was a difference in “defensive-ness” between the two. In German, it’s mostly a matter of how you say it, whether you sound defensive or assertive. Though actually… lediglich is a bit official so you’re not too agitated emotionally if you use that one :)
I do not agree with the previous assertion.
“just”, “only”, and “simply” can all sound equally defensive/non-defensive, and the difference is 100% in the speaker’s emphasis and tone.
“Das geht dich gar nichts an. Ich habe ein Recht meine Privatssphäre.”
“Bleib ruhig. Ich wollte lediglich wissen, wann du nach Hause kommst.”
“That’s none of your business. I have a right to privacy.”
“Chill out. I just wanted to know when you’ll come home.”
To “link” to your meaning of “simple”, that phrase could be translated to “… I SIMPLY wanted to know when…”
Wait, but “just” works, too, right? Or am I missing something?
“Just” works.
“Simply” in that sentence would sound more emphatic to me, like you’re strongly implying that the other person is being really unreasonable. It feels a bit more formal, too; it might actually be a good match for “lediglich,” since it wouldn’t be the go-to, normal word to use there.
Emanuel: the old word Gelieth reminds me of the english word” lithe” meaning supple or graceful. The rest of the article says it is not used as much as it was. Schade. Impoverishment of English. Eine wunderbare Tour der indo-germanic Worten. Danke
I just checked on Etymonline and found that “lithe” is related to German “lind”, which is also super rare and means something like “tender”.
There’s the verb “lindern” which is to “mitigate” for pain and that one is kind of common.
And I just now understood why a Lindwurm is called Lindwurm… because it is flexible :)
Vielleicht weil Du Kellner bist kannst Du für alle den super raren Begriff ”ankreiden” auch kurz erklären. ?
Nah- es hat auch mit ”tender” etwas zu tun.
Hier meine ich aber ”legal tender”.
Nur im Stammlokal gehts noch vielleicht??
Ich bin als nur relativ oberflächlich bibelfest vertraut GEWESEN SEIN!
Mit der Liederbibel aber, mit Messingnageln versehen von den Sänger Mit-Glied-shaften.
Die Saufbibel. ”Kommersbuch”
Kennst Du das alte Lied oft kurz genannt ”Die Lindenwirtin”?
Was wird denn mit Linden
gemeint –
Das Wirtshaus heißt ”Linden” etwas?
Die Wirtin ist der Hammer süß, nett, klein, und fein? ”Lindenwirtin Du junge”
Beides gleichzeitig – ein Wortspiel.??
Ich habe nie einen unflexiblen Wurm lebendig gesehen. ??
Nur als totes Glied aus der Eiszeit.
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=keinen+tropfen+im+becher+mehr&&view=detail&mid=6117A5E336B74B9738946117A5E336B74B973894&&FORM=VRDGAR
Und weiteres: Kennst Du den Ausdruck ”unbeweibt””????????
Section A) – Contribution
I was just,today, thinking? It would be cool if we get a body part like Kopf, but thought there was not alot of potential for them. When I saw elbow, I knew I had to had sth so here is an idiom.
seine Ellbogen gebrauchen (idiom).
Pons, context example is below (from the internet,not the dictionary . 2 is from me though.
1)Wenn es sein muss , sogar mit dem Ellbogen .
2- my try) – Muss ich meine Ellbogen gebrauchen?
Section B) – Testing the article with more unicorn convos
Unicorn A : I will eine Ellenbogen haben,aber mit ellenlanger Näse ist das unmöglich.
Unicorn B : Ich kann nicht glauben, dass es eine biologische Glied zwischen mir und dir gibt.
Unicorn C : aber.. wenn die Näse des Einhorns, so sein Glied
Unicorn B : Ruhe in Frieden, Deutsche.Er hat dich geschlachtet
Unicorn D : Uni B. Du bist unser unschätzbares Mitglied,aber er hat keine Mitgliedschaft. Gehen Sie.
Unicorn B : Die Schaft Der Gliederung ist….
ledig Unicorn E : Ich würde gerne lediglich einen Poop-Wettbewerb vorschlagen.
Unicorn C : Diese Shcaft Wird sich dir entledigen. I muss die übung erledigen. Sie sich nicht erledige.
Translation)
Unicorn A : I want an elbow but with a long nose, this is impossible.
Unicorn B : I cannot believe there is a biological link between me and you
Unicorn C : but…. you can tell the size of a unicorn member by the size of his nose
Unicorn B : Rest in peace, German. He butcherd you.
Unicorn D: You are our invaluble member unicorn b, but you dont have a membership. Go away.
Unicorn B : This structure of this society is ….
Never married unicorn E : I just would like to suggest a pooping competition.
Uni C : This society will take care of you. I have an excersie to do. It won’t take care of itself
Secetion C) – Further notes
Regarding,Just
Gerade ( as in just now)
Nur ( as in just a little bit)
einfach (as in, he is just a boy, simply a boy)
Erst( as in He is just 20 and still young) or Erst (as a process) (I think , I also saw another context)
Where would those fit in ?
bloß (Just)
lediglich ( Just)
And How would the following phrases be made
Just chillin
Just eatain
Only just
Just a cat. Just a dog. Just a ” Noun”
I wonder if there is any other “only” I should know about.
Section D – Suggestions
In some posts, I have seen a word summury/fact sheet at the end. Did you stop these? They were awesome
Section A)
Your idiom makes sense.
Section B)
I told you before that it is “wie die Nase des Mannes”, not “wenn”. If you like the proverb so much, you should learn it correctly ;)
“Die Schaft Der Gliederung ist….” … that makes no sense whatsover
“Diese Shcaft Wird sich dir entledigen.”… Schaft doesn’t mean society. “sich entledigen” goes with Genitive, not Dative.
“Sie sich nicht erledige.”… this is missing the “by itself” part and also: verb ending is wrong.
Other than that, very nice and very creative!
Section C)
“bloß” and “lediglich” are like “nur”.
“Just chilling” would be most idiomatic with “nur”, but “einfach” might also fit. Same for the nouns.
Section D)
I’m not doing them at the moment, because I have a new feature in the works that makes it more structured.
1)Dankeschön
2) “Sie sich nicht erledige.”… this is missing the “by itself” part and also: verb ending is wrong.
I can see why the ending is wrong, it should be “erledigt”. However, how is the “by itself part missing”
Mabye it should have been: “sie sich nich erledigt von alleine”
2me) Die Schaft Der Gliederung ist….” … that makes no sense whatsover
Well, it was supposed to refer to how this “society is Structured”
Note : Final username.
2) The idiom is “sich von selbst erledigen”. It doesn’t work without “von selbst/allein” as an idiom anymore.
2em) I guess you mean “Gliederung der Gesellschaft”.
Typo: Legt euch *af* die Matte
Have you done an article about überraschen and what happened to the verb raschen?
No, I haven’t but it’s an interesting suggestion. I’ll see if there’s a story to tell about “raschen” :)
Hi,
Typos first and usual:
everyday is just one word in the sense you’ve used it (i.e. routinely)
“apperant” (apparent)
“shjould” (should)
and that’s a wrap for the typos, all erledigt…
But today is the day where my questions outnumber your typos and I’m going to ask you to explain something to me that’s been driving me up the wall… so here goes:
1. dehnt alle Gliedmaßen aus – so is the verb for stretching “drehen”? Because I’ve been doing aerobics dubbed in German (yes, you’re entitled to laugh all you want) and the woman is always saying “beugen, strecken, beugen, strecken…”, so I just assumed it stretch was strecken :)
2. does ledig mean a spinster than? and if so, what do Germans call a person who’s not currently in a relationship, regardless of having or not been married, divorced or whatever elese before?
3. I didn’t know Goethe wrote adult poetry…
4. the ISSUE over which I’ve been losing sleep – I know it has nothing to do with this article, but I’ve been trying to learn the conditional in German based on your series, which is super, by the way. After having thought I’d nailed it, including the clusterfabulousness that is the past conditional with modals, I started coming across the phrase “blah, blah, blah… gewesen sein” in books and TV shows. Now when do you use “gewesen sein”? What kind of grammatical structure is it? “wuerde gewesen sein” sounds like “would have been” to English speakers… but your articles had already drilled into my brain that wuerde is NOT used with the past conditional, it’s always waere or haette… So where does this “…. gewesen sein” belong to?
AAAAARGH…. HILFE!
And that’s all for today!
Bis bald!
Jeez, here I am correcting your typos and then I go and write a load of them myself (I blame it on the “gewesen sein”)! But the only one that matters is the word I used in my question 1 to you, I meant “dehnen”, not “drehen” (which I know means turn)!
Thanks as usual for the correction.
And very nice questions!!
1) “dehnen” and “strecken” can both mean stretch in context of sports. “dehnen” has a focus on “extending with tension” while “strecken” has more of a focus of “extend to full length”. So what you do with your tendons is more “dehnen” while what you do in the morning with your limbs is “strecken”.
2) I’ve never heard “spinster”. “ledig” is quite the official word and the word for “unpartnered” is just “single”. There’s no official word for that because if you’re neither married nor “ledig” then you’re either divorced or widowed. So you get your label :)
3) He really did, I did not make that up. He wasn’t as high culture as people think.
4) That’s easy… conditional is the wrong track here!
– Das muss ein Einhorn gewesen sein.
– That must have been a unicorn.
Can be other modals as well.
Hope that helps :)!
“Spinster” is another word for “old maid,” an older woman who never married. An older never-married man would be an “old bachelor,” though there’s no equivalent to “spinster” that I know of. Both would definitely be “ledig,” but so are young singles.
SUPER WIE IMMER :)
Danke :)!
Ich habe alles erledigt :-)
Top, dann genieß dein Wochenende!
Nice!
English speakers (at least those who are bibelfest) may be more familiar with “cubit” as the standard translation of “die Elle” as a unit of measurement (the length of the forearm from elbow to fingertips). I assume it comes from the Latin Vulgate translation.
What’s meant by “Ellenbogengesellschaft”?
I suppose it’s elbowing (forcing) your way into places. Pushy maybe?
Pretty close. I thing “egomaniac” is a nice fit, actually.
Oh wow, you don’t know that? Now that’s a surprise for me :).
Ellenbogengesellschaft is a word for a society in which everyone is doing everything they can for themselves, no matter whether that means “hurting” someone else. Everyone has their ellbows out, figurativily. Like when you want to force your way through a crowd.
Does that make sense?
Nope, I’d really never heard or read it, at least that I remember. That makes sense, though.
Sorry , I don’t understand it.
A society in which each individual only cares for themselves and tries to force things their way. Does that help?
Dog eat dog world. Nobody gives a flying f*** about others and cares only for him/herself.
“dog eat dog world”… is that how it’s called in English? But yeah, sounds about right :)
Ein Musterbeispiel
hier:
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=trump+pushing+past+world+leaders+video&&view=detail&mid=2D19467E9B3C3374F58D2D19467E9B3C3374F58D&rvsmid=136AEEA493000ACE4DFF136AEEA493000ACE4DFF&FORM=VDRVRV