“Defending in German”
Hello everyone,
day 13 of our German learning Advent Calendar, and today we’ll take another peek into the book I am working on and get a sweet little bit of vocabulary-chocolate with an etymology filling. Yummy.
Ladies and gentlemen… get ready for
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verteidigen
It’s a weird looking word that seems to have no connection to anything, but in fact it has a connection to… thing.
Thing and its German brother das Ding come from the Germanic ting, which had a really crucial role in the Germanic society because the ting was a (no pun intended) meeting of the tribe leaders, which often had the function of a court.
Back then, there was also the verb “tagetingen”, a combination of Tag (day) and ting, which was later shortened to “teidingen”. This verb expressed the idea of having a court hearing or debate. And the ver added a notion of for to it giving the verb a sense of speaking for your case, or for someone. Soon, it broadened beyond the context of a ting and became the general German word for to defend.
die Verteidigung – the defense (also in sport), vindication
der Verteidiger – the defender (sports), the defense attorney
- Ich habe meine Theorie über Einhörner verteidigt.
- I defended my theory about unicorns.
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As usual, let me know your questions and comments in the… well… comments. Habt einen schönen Tag und bis morgen :)
OMG I’m just so happy I found your website *crying face*
I’m happy to hear that. Welcome and viel Spaß :)
I’ve been doing freelance work in Norway for a year, and it’s really cool to see the German-Norwegian-English connections. Relevant to today’s post, they call their parliament “Stortinget”, which is stor (great) + ting (court, assembly) + et (definite neuter ending). I guess the old word never fell out fashion in this case. I wonder if there’s a Norwegian cousin of “verteidigen”.
What a beautiful etymology! I am SO excited about this upcoming book! Thank you for the BEAUTIFUL word discussion!
Are Einhörner your favourite (imaginary) creatures? :D
No, cats are. And elves. But unicorns are vicous and make for better stories.
Wir warten auf dein Buch! Ist es auf English oder deutsch?
Auf Englisch. So wie der Blog!
Ich warte auf Emanuels Buch über die Theorie aller Dinge Einhorn.
Sorry Alan aber es ist “Alle FAKTEN über Einhörner”. Ich bringe kalte harte Fakten!!
Emanuel, your intended book reminds me in some ways of Bruce Donaldson’s Mastering German Vocabulary: A Practical Guide to Troublesome Words, Routledge, Oxon 2004. Unlike your work, Donaldson does not cover the source of the words. And lacks your sense of humour.
Es gibt eine version dieses interessanten Buch im Internet mit vielen Vokabular zum Beispiel : zahlen , bezahlen, und so weiter .
Wo denn?
I took a look at it just now (on Amazon preview) and I kind of like the concept of taking an English concept and going over the various options in German.
What I didn’t like is the formatting, which is awful. And the price.
I didn’t read anything, so I can’t talk about style :)
Wow so cool and also how smelly do you think those Ting meetings were?
The smell was strong at those ones.
Kennst.Du schon das Wort ‘Thingplatz’ aus der Blut und Boden Zeit?
Jetzt. verstehe ich endlich den Begriff..
Für mich war.es immer ein Weirdo!
Ja, die Neonazis benutzen das heute noch, glaube ich. Auch das Wort “T(h)ing”. Und haben Bilder von Thor im Zimmer und so. Also… nicht Marvel Thor, sondern der “echte”.
Hellooooo!
one typo only: attorny (attorney), apart from the usual “calender” that I find cute as it’s a bit Denglish ;)
Are you really writing a book about prefix verbs? I had to go look at the posts I missed while I was on holiday, but I only skimmed them, so I’m not sure… but if you are, I’d like to pre-order… in fact, I want this book sooooo much I’d pay 10 times what is worth just to have it (I have a really, really hard time with prefix verbs)! Oh, and I do want a signed, dedicated copy :)
Bis morgen!
Funny–the writing dictionary probably didn’t catch “calendar” since, oddly, it is an obscure English word for some type of textile machine. It also makes me wonder why we spell it calendAr in English…kinda weird spelling. In any case, I’ve been burned by this type of thing before as well!
I’ve been writing it for years but life got in the way, as did writer’s block. But I will finish it in 2020. I have made a deal with the inner critic to shut its face for once :)
Why would you take sth that looks good “tagetingen” and easily memorable to make it into this “teidigen”. I hate this :(.
My example : Meine Schuhe habe meinen kleinen Zeh von bösartigen Tisch erteidigt
“verteidigen” is not really the same as “to protect”. I feel like that would fit better in the example you gave.
True. “Protect” is much better fit, but “defend” is not that far fetched