Page:An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.djvu/77

---

Ger. writers, constantly used till the end of the last century. OHG. diutisk (for MidLat. theodiscus, the earliest records of the word are in the years 813, 842, 860), ‘German,’ properly only ‘pertaining to the people’ (OSax thiudisca liudi, ‘Teutons’); Goth. preserves the corresponding þiudiskô, adv., in the sense of ‘like a heathen’ (in close connection with Gr. ξθγικώς). The suffix isk denotes ‘pertaining to.’ The subst. MidHG. diet, OHG. diot, diota, ‘people,’ upon which this word is based, is preserved in such compound proper names as Dietrich, Detlef, Detmold, Detmar; as an independent word it is also obsolete in Eng.; AS. þeód; Goth. þiuda, f. The OTeut. subst. is based upon a word — pre-Teut. teutâ, ‘people’ — found in many West Aryan languages; comp. Lith. tautà, f., ‘country,’ Lett. tauta, ‘people, nation’; OIr. túath, ‘people’; Oscan touto, ‘people’ (Livy calls the chief magistrate of the Campanian towns ‘medix tuticus’). Thus the word deutsch has a singular and comprehensive history; it was used in the earliest OHG. and MidLat. writings only of the language (since 845 A.D. Theodisci occurs also as the name of a people, and first of all in Italy); deutsch, ‘popular,’ was the term applied to the native language in contrast to the Lat. ecclesiastical speech and the Lat. official phraseology. We may note E. Dutch, because it is restricted to the language of Holland; till about 1600 A.D. the people of Holland were convinced that their language was German.

dibbern, vb., Jew., ‘to talk’ (especially in a low voice), from Hebr. dibbèr, ‘to talk’.

dicht, adj., ‘close, dense,’ dial. deicht (Liv. and Esth.), from MidHG. dîhte, ‘dense.’ The absence of the diphthong is probably due to LG., since the word does not occur in UpGer. (Suab. and Bav.). Corresponds to OIc. þéttr, ‘dense’ (related to Goth. *þeihts, as léttr, ‘light,’ to Goth. leihts); allied to the Teut. root þinh (see gedeihen), just as Goth. leihts to the root ling (see gelingen). E. tight, from MidE. tîht, has an abnormal t for th initially, probably due to the influence of Swed. and Dan. tœt; in MidE. the normal thîht is also found. For another derivation see dick.

dichten, vb., ‘to invent, imagine, write, fabricate,’ from MidHG. tihten, ‘to write, draw up (in writing), compose, invent, excogitate’; the ModHG. meaning is very

much restricted compared with the fulness of MidHG. Even in the 16th and 17th cents. Dichter (MidHG. tihtœre) meant generally ‘writer, author,’ and was applied to the prose writer as well as the poet. The origin of dichten (OHG. tihtôn, ‘to write, compose’), from Lat. dictare, ‘to dictate,’ late Lat. also ‘to compose,’ may have favoured the change from tichten to dichten; AS. dihtan, which is of the same origin, has the further signification ‘to arrange, array.’

dick, adj., ‘thick, stout, corpulent,’ from MidHG. dic, dicke, adj., ‘thick, dense, frequent,’ OHG. dicchi, ‘thick, dense’; in Eng. too the double meaning of the adj. obtains; comp. OIc. þykkr, þjǫkkr, AS. þicce, E. thick. Corresponds to OIr. tiug (from *tigu), ‘thick,’ so that we must presuppose a Goth. *þiqus. Beside which the double sense, ‘thick, dense,’ makes the kinship with dicht probable. In OHG. the meaning ‘dense’ has been preserved in Dickicht, lit. ‘a place densely overgrown’ (orig. used by sportsmen); in MidHG. dicke is the equiv. term.

Dieb, m., ‘thief,’ from the equiv. MidHG. diep(b), OHG. diob, m.; common to the Teut. group; comp. Goth. þiufs(b), Du. dief, AS. þeóf, E. thief. The word cannot be traced beyond Teut. In the sense of ‘Diebstahl,’ E. has a form with a dental suffix — AS. þŷfþ, f. (OIc. þýfð, s., Goth. *þiubiþa), E. theft. The form in HG. is a j- stem — OHG. diuba (diuva), MidHG. diube (diuve), earlier ModHG. Deube (as late as Logau, 1604-1655), which is now met with only in Wilddeube, ‘petty poaching.’ The latter forms the base of ModHG. Diebstahl, in MidHG. diepstâle and diupstâle (OSwed. þiufstolet), lit. ‘theft-stealing.’ The second part of the compound expresses the same idea as the first; Dieb is simply the concrete which has replaced the abstract; comp. Goth. þiubi, n., and its adv. form þiubjô, ‘secretly.’ Besides the masc. Dieb, there existed in OHG. and MidHG. a feminine form, which in Goth. would have been *þiubi; comp. OHG. diupa, MidHG. diupe, ‘female thief.’ We must seek for the primit. word in a pre-Teut. root with a final p; this is proved by OHG. diuva, MidHG. diuve, f., ‘theft’; comp. the Aryan root tup, ‘to duck,’ under Ducht.

Diele, f., ‘plank, board,’ from MidHG. dil, dille, f., m., ‘board, partition of boards, boarded floor’ (in LG. ‘vestibule’), OHG.