erschließen

(er verb)

Word type: er verb
Based on: schließen

Perfect (spoken past): hat erschlossen

Preterite (written past): erschloß

Meanings

to develop, to make accessible

(For natural resources, land that you make ready for building. Also for markets in an economic sense.)

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to make accessible

(For knowledge, often used with a self reference in Dative "sich etwas erschließen". )

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to become understandable

("sich jemandem erschließen" - for information and logic that "opens itself" up to someone. Essentially, a twisted alternative for "understanding".)

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Word Family

Root: *klau-

The core idea of this root was:

hook, crooked piece of wood

This soon focused on the idea of closing a door by some sort of hook and the general theme of closing is still alive in many offspring today, though it’s sometimes more about a separated space.
Here’s a little (incomplete) overview – as you’ll see, many of the verbs have a translation with schließen in German.

close, closure (“lock”… the idea of being close comes from tightness)
disclose (“unlock”)
enclose (“to shut in”)
conclude (“to close with”)
include (“to shut in”)
seclude (“lock aside”)
preclude (“lock in advance”)
exclude (“lock out”)
occlude (“lock away from”)
clavicle (“lock like bone”)

erschließen

Meanings

Word Family

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