abreißen

Word type: ab verb
Based on: reißen

Perfect (spoken past): hat abgerissen

Preterite (written past): riss ab

Meanings

1.

to rip off

(In the literal sense. NOT for ripping off as in "stealing ideas")

How useful:

2.

to tear down

(For buildings.)

How useful:

Opposite (closest): bauen

3.

to stop, to die down

(For connections and streams of some kind. The subject is the stream, NOT a person doing the stopping. The spoken past is built with "sein" in that case.)

How useful:

Word Family

Root: *uer-

This root is only mentioned in German etymological sources, but not in the English ones I am using.

The core idea of it was:

rip open, carving

According to German etymological sources, it is probably the origin of to write, but at least Etymonline states that the origin of write is uncertain.
It would make sense though, if you think of writing as carving something into wood or stone.

In German, reißen (to rip) and ritzen (to make small scratches) are fairly close to the original sense. The branch around Reiz (stimulus) is a bit more figurative, but still makes sense if you think of scratching your skin as one of the basic stimuli you can feel.

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