Until the bitter end (idiom)

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The statue of a bitter enemy, those who fought to the bitter end in Bloemfontein (South Africa)

To the bitter end is an often joking phrase with the meaning: hold out until it no longer works or: until someone can no longer in certain extreme situations . It is also used when an initially pleasant, but then unpleasant thing is endured to the end. You can fight to the bitter end, endure or endure something. The saying can be traced back to Middle High German sources in the antithesis : sweet beginning, bitter end . In modern fasting sermons and in religious contexts, the bitter end was used as a substitute for the "bitter slope" and the "bitter cup". However, the phrase has changed in meaning through the military conflict of the "bitter" during and after the second Boer War , where the extensive journalistic reporting contributed to everyday use . Here, however, the name bitter end, which is common in Dutch seafaring, gave the end of a rope its name.

origin

Etymologies see the root of bitter in biting and the word end as a shortening ellipse of Ende-Christ , the Antichrist who bites and eats sinners with his hellish throat. The derivation bitter and bite is supported to be seen in an origin, based on the English translation, there bite has been preserved in its early form for bite . The Danish verb bid and the Dutch bijt also mean bite. For the phrase and its historical sources, two contexts can be found in different Germanic language areas. On the one hand, the German biblical-religious twin formula of the sweet beginning and the bitter end, which stands as an antithesis in a sophisticated style for dying as the final point in life and is already documented in Middle High German. In terms of content, the antithetical pair of terms can be substantiated in all of the following periods. The second origin is the Anglo-Dutch maritime, which is characterized by seafaring. The "bitter bark" is a thin rope on board a ship that is used to pull the thick end. This compound word gave the Bittereinders their name in South Africa during the armed conflict. Finally, the pair of terms gained a military connotation through reporting during the Boer War of 1902 , the term Bitterinders , which is used in Afrikaans Colonial Dutch , was Germanized , and the battles were often fought hopelessly to the bitter end. The two meanings of different origins intersected. In addition, the frequency of use in German changed in the face of advancing secularization , the fear of the end times in Hell's Throat disappeared, the pair of opposites of the antonyms sweet beginning - bitter end ebbed away, the military-combative meaning as pathetically circumscribed image for the Death won. After the world wars and with the flattening of war rhetoric, the meaning expanded, thanks to its visually memorable character, to a slogan that is sometimes jokingly or ironically meant.

In Middle High German literature and the literature of the early modern period

Baptistery in Florence, Baptistery of San Giovanni dome, bitter end in the sense of a biting Antichrist in the medieval understanding.
bitter end in the throat of hell , fresco in the parish church of St. Vitus in Kottingwörth
The Marner (illustration from the Codex Manesse ) uses the image of the bitter end and calls the counterpart the sweet Christian

According to Duden, the word bitter has a wide range of meanings today: from bitter taste to "painful" to "strong, big, heavy". Seen in this way, "bitter end" means something like "painful end". In etymologies, the origin of bitter is seen in biting . According to True Etymology, bitter originally only meant acrid. For the word end, it should be noted that in medieval understanding the expectation of the end of times played an important function of demarcation from that which was absolutely rejected. The strong meaning of the end-Christian concept of the Antichrist is not explained for purely propaganda purposes, but for religious, pre-rational convictions.

The oldest evidence in the sense of a biting bitter end is in the legend of the saints of New Year's Eve by the master Konrad von Würzburg in a handwriting, which was written before 1287, it is also the most extensive legend of Konrad von Würzburg with 5222 verses. Which was written in the floral style of late medieval poetry. It is the call of Pope New Year's Eve to Emperor Constantine after he had freed him from illness to be converted to Christianity in return (guilt), for this the child sacrifices should be spared, he also does not have to endure severe torture and hard hell jellyfish that to would lead to a painful, tormenting bitter end, he must only submit to the faith forever.

“He said: You must suffer severe pain from debts; I want to torment you harder than you've ever been pinned. host din opher here saved from mines gods uz exquisite, ez muoz din bitter end beings whether you are not ir violence undertaenic alle vrift. "

- Konrad von Würzburg before 1287 : New Year's Eve

For the proximity to the fear of purgatory and this end with biting torments, further Middle High German sources can be located in the Manessian song manuscript and the mysticism of Johannes Taulers in the 14th century. Here is the apocalypse theme. The world is facing its bitter end because of misguided virtue and falsehood.

"Owe dir wandelbere world / · that we serve you vn̄ ſo reht boͤſ iſt din gel / · vn̄ din valſcher arger lon · ze ivngeſt ǒch ſo bitter end has / · din even vnſtete ſvͤzekeit ·."

- Johann von Ringgenberg around 1340 : Whether all the telling stories are high

“(...) thou shame it that I was alone one morning, and waited in myself to remember that the world is so bad and how it ends , and how bitter it ends , and how much valsch and how unconcerned it is world has become (...) "

- Johannes Tauler of Strasbourg before 1360 : Contribution to the history of mysticism and religious life in the fourteenth century, editor D. Carl Schmidt. Published by Friedrich Perthes, Hamburg, 1841. S. 267

The moral doctrine of Hans Sachs , written in pair rhymes , is of similar origin in early modern poetry , in which life is rhymed with a bitter end with "vice" , but without seeing the world before its end.

"(...) The vice, however, must shade you /, you yourself can not boast, / In the dark fog they turn into bloom, / You bitter end, therefore companion / The best part of you exceptionally (...)"

- Hans Sachs around 1570 : The reward for virtue and vice, very useful to read.

In secular literature from the 17th to the 20th centuries

In the secular literature of fiction since the Reformation, the struggle for love and the fear of death for love are often available as topics for the bitter end . The crossed figure with a sweet beginning - a bitter end, for example in Mozart's Singspiel Don Juan, established itself as a rhetorical stylistic device for the more sophisticated form

"Confectionery here - there looks of anger / sweet beginning and bitter end."

- Mozart 1793 : Don Juan

or also in Schlegel the crossed pair of opposites can be found

"But there was never any more love of soul / of tender treasures. / Death wants to quarrel with love, / To prepare a bitter end for pleasure, / So too, Karle's heart must perish / The grace to see die."

- Friedrich von Schlegel : Frankenberg near Aachen In: Poems. Julius E. Hitzig Verlag. Berlin, 1809, p.301

In Zeindl's funeral poem, the phrase is used to refer to the hopeless fight against an illness. It stands for the end after the disease.

"The smallest air can give her the bitter end."

- Johann Zeindl 1767 : Mourning poem

Also the courtly dramatic key work of the baroque shepherd's play Aminta by Torquato Tasso , translated metrically by FG ​​Walter. has also existed in German since 1794, contains the fixed addition. So must you get me to this bitter end / to this bitter end? it means the unattainable love between shepherds and their higher ranked beloved. Numerous other translators of famous works used the phrase as if it were in fashion at the end of the 18th century, and the literal translation of a sounding only meaningful one had given way. For example in Matteo Maria Boiardo 's, Roland in love . German in verse by Johann Diederich Gries . So that Tristan, that bold hero, / drinking here, the queen might escape, / the cause came to its bitter end. The Cervantes translation Numantia from the Spanish original, published in 1810 by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué , uses the phrase in pair rhymes: The heavens have said it / We have a bitter end already wrapped around / Their mild light has not dawned on us. Somebody else, unless sad wailing began like that


At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, new contexts of meaning emerged. Fiction no longer adheres to the traditional templates. For example, in the Decay Of Lying: An Observation , by Oscar Wilde , both in the English original and in the German translation by Hedwig Lachmann and Gustav Landauer, she removes the phrase. The bitter end here does not mean dying, but rather succinctly the boring ending of a comprehensive execution (... "their principles to the bitter end of action." ...)

“Who needs to be consistent? The fool and the doctrinal, the disgusting people who bring their principles to the bitter end of the execution, to the reductio ad absurdum of practice. "

- Oscar Wilde 1889 : Intentions. The Decay of Lying

In Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Irony of Things , the phrase in the Hegelian sense relates to the Absolute Spirit, which only unfolds after something has ended. The Hofmannsthal is interesting because of the idiom that marks the end of comedy and the transition to tragedy and that there is traditional cultural and historical evidence for this, for example Protestant moral teachings.

“With all this we find ourselves in the element of comedy - or rather in an element of such all-round irony as no comedy in the world shows, except for the comedy of Aristophanes; and this, too, arose during a war that was most unfortunate for the poet's hometown and sealed its fate. It is quite clear, however, that it is those who are subject to this ironic power of events. Anyone who has come to the bitter end of something is blindfolded, gains a clear mind and gets behind things, almost like someone who has died. "

- Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1921 : The irony of things . In: Three small observations of the Free Press Vienna 1921

Religious origin

With the attribute “bitter” as a flavor, it is natural to interpret the phrase in places in the New Testament where wine is consumed. Chalices are Semitic symbols for divine testing. Friedrich Wolf's modern idiom also connects the bitter goblet with the bitter end. Chalices go back to the custom of offering a drink to underline hospitality. But these could also bring death as a poisoned drink. In the sense of the divine test, the chalice therefore also appears many times in the Old Testament In the Old Testament Bible passage, Book of Ezekiel, it was said:

“You must drink yourself full of strong potion and misery; for the cup of your sister Samaria is a cup of horror and horror. You have to drink it until you run out, then slurp out the pieces and tear your breasts apart; for I have spoken it, says the Lord GOD. "

- Ezekiel

The sweet tasting drink from a goblet is running out and slowly turns into bitterness. In the past, filtration was not fully developed in winemaking, which is why residues of the bitter substances remained, which settled in the hollow base of the wine glass and the end in the tapered part of the goblet. You then drank the wine to the bitter end.

“Hear what I have to say: Even peoples who were not condemned to do so must drink the bitter goblet. And should you be spared? No, you too will have to empty this goblet to the point. "

- Jeremiah

However, the phrase in its abbreviated form is not to be found literally in the Luther translations, nor is the original phrase: "to the bitter end"

A source for the phrase, emptying the goblet to the bitter end, can be found in the fasting sermons by Anton Paeßmeyer from 1795, although the passages with the idiomatic phrase "sweet beginning" and "bitter end" are not in Luther the first German translation of the Bible, the phrase can be found in many sermons at the time of Pietism, for example in the tracts and philotheia by August Hermann Francke . There it is already removed from the chalice and stands individually for itself.

"... so notice this, too, that all ungodly false love is dark at the beginning of being sweet, but it even has a bitter end."

- August Hermann Francke in Philotheia 1706

The phrase can be found in numerous theological writings serving moral education , for example in the Schola sapientum, that is the school of the wise, written in mystical-theological tracts from 1740, here with the bitter end a transformation of the theater of comedy into a lamentation is described and the beginning of the tragedy.

Maritime origin

The ropes (ends) tied to bits on board a sailing ship

In English, the “bitter end” is also traced back to a maritime origin in The Seaman's Grammar and Dictionary by Captain John Smith in 1627. Therein is the "bitter's end" the one narrow end of a rope, which on-board a ship to a bollard in the port or on the deck (English bitt is secured). It is generally any leftover idle "lazy" rope that is left over when ropes are tightened in the rigging and tied to the bitts. The bitter end also refers to the last untensioned part of the anchor rope. It is usually marked with colored flags. When the sailors anchored and the markings approached the bitter end, it was clear that there was no rope left, which meant that the water was too deep to anchor. The anchor may also have been lost because too much rope or chain was sunk in the water. It was only with great effort, which became dangerous for the whole ship, that the anchor could still be lifted, which induced English etymologists to locate the phrase bitter end in its nautical origin. Even today, the last six sections marked with signal flags are still called "Bitter ends" in the English Navy. When the “bitter end” rope end required for handling has been reached, the thick end begins and the actual stable rope, which can really hold an entire ship. This remaining work rope is loosely tied around the bitts after use. The short "bitter end" is also a common term in Dutch sailors' language. The “thick end” can also be found in this context, since the short “bitter end” is followed by the “thick end”. Here end means rope in both cases. What is important about this maritime origin is that the term "Bitterender" gave its name to those fighters in the Boer War who did not surrender, such as the large group of their compatriots, the "Handsuppers", in the then still Dutch Orange Free State in South Africa. So "bitter" means rather "thin end of a group".

Entry into everyday language

Bertha von Suttner 1903 used: to the bitter end in various texts. The content referred to the war in South Africa.

The Grimm's dictionary had 1,869 at press time the volumes B and not ready E in "bitter" nor the "end" a lemma to the phrase, so it stands to reason to assume a decay of Lemmafrequenz in sermons, in fiction and the use of literature and to look for the appearance in everyday language at a later point in time, even if the term was already traditional in literature, the frequency in the entire verifiable vocabulary did not increase significantly until 1900 and was then often revived primarily through journalism. As Bittereinder (Afrikaans: [ˌbətərəɪndərs]) were referred to the turn of the century in 1900 those against the English in to the "bitter end" Second Boer War fought. These Boers (farmers) were South Africans of Dutch and German descent. As a small group they followed the concept of the scorched earth with guerrilla tactics. All German newspapers reported down to the smallest detail about the hopeless battles against the overwhelming British army; it was the media event of its time. Through the journalistic work it left behind the idiom that still stands for taking up and persevering in hopeless struggles. The phrase in its form and meaning in use today was also used prominently by the peace activist Bertha von Suttner at that time .

"All the indignation that the troubled sympathy and the insulted sense of justice aroused now turns against the English, who want to continue this war to the bitter end. (...)"

- Bertha von Suttner : Principle of violence. In Heimgarten 1902

Consolidation through war reports

The significantly increased use as a perseverance slogan in the war years 1941 to 1945 was thematically clearly related to the world view of the final victory . From the mystically exaggerated connection between people and leaders, the National Socialist pess also propagated the annihilation of the people for an imminent defeat and thus reinforced the will to persevere.

"Everyone on board the destroyer knows that this is the final battle that they will have to endure to the bitter end as soldiers of the Führer, as National Socialists and as seamen."

- Fritz-Otto Busch 1943 : The German Navy in combat

Expansion of meaning

Removed from the already existing meaning and use in the upscale, religious style and the maritime-military context, the phrase after the Second World War gained through its frequent use an expansion of the statement beyond the immediate understanding ( amplification ). It took on the character of a general slogan to persevere, as an incentive in hopeless situations in sport or in the financial world, and it is often meant to be ironically pointed.

"A defeat, he said, he would have preferred to have seen it on the television, at least he could have turned it off, but here he is not spared the bitter end."

- Erik Neutsch : Spur der Steine, Halle: Mitteldeutscher Verlag 1964, p. 606

literature

  • Duden, Volume 11: Idioms and proverbial sayings. Edited by Duden Editor. Mannheim, Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich: Dudenverlag (is updated regularly)
  • Honnen, Peter: Is it all chocolate? Words and word stories from the Rhineland. Greven Verlag Cologne, 2008; 248 pp.
  • Honnen, Peter: Where does that come from? Dictionary of origin of the colloquial language on the Rhine and Ruhr. Greven Verlag Cologne, 2018; 688 pp.
  • Krüger-Lorenzen, Kurt: German idioms and what's behind them. Munich: Heyne Verlag 2001; 860 pp.
  • Müller, Klaus (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Redensarten, 781 S., Gütersloh / Munich 2001
  • The Book of Sayings: VPM, Verlagsunion Pabel Moewig, 1999 p.169
  • Schemann, Hans, Prof. Dr .: German Idiomatics - the German idioms in context, 1037 S., De Gruyter; Edition: 2nd, updated edition, August 30, 2011

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ in the online dictionary Wortbedeutung.info [1] accessed on March 27, 2020
  2. ^ A b Johann Hinrich Röding: General dictionary of the navy, in all European maritime languages. Volume 1, Hall 1785, p. 310 ( digitized version ).
  3. ↑ a b wortherkunft bei Wissen.de, refers to the Truig Origin Dictionary Volume 6 Bertelsmann-Verlag 2009 [2]
  4. ^ Konrad Fleck: Flore and Blanscheflur. a short story (written around 1220). Edited by Emil Sommer. Quedlinburg & Leipzig, 1846 Digisat accessed on March 29, 2020
  5. ↑ a b c DWDS word curve for “bitter end”, created by the digital dictionary of the German language, [3] , accessed on March 25, 2020.
  6. ^ Hans Schemann: German Idiomatics. Dictionary of German idioms in context p.600ff. De Gruyter Publishing House. 2nd Edition. 2011. ISBN 978-3-11-021788-9 . [4]
  7. ↑ Great Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (Codex Manesse) - Zurich, approx. 1300 to approx. 1340 p. 351 right column, Mittelvers Digisat
  8. ↑ www.duden.de [5] accessed on March 24, 2020
  9. ↑ "bitter", made available by the Digital Dictionary of the German Language, < https://www.dwds.de/wb/bitter >, accessed on March 28, 2020.
  10. ↑ the Christ coming at the end - Antichrist Enti-krist Matthias Lexer: Middle High German Concise Dictionary. At the same time as a supplement and alphabetical index to the Middle High German dictionary by Benecke-Müller-Zarncke . 3 volumes, Leipzig 1872–1878 woerterbuchnetz.de . S.551 Digisat accessed on March 29, 2020
  11. ^ Otto Borst : Everyday life in the Middle Ages. Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt 1983, ISBN 3-458-32213-2 , p. 563 ff.
  12. ^ Johan Huizinga : Autumn of the Middle Ages. Studies of forms of life and spirit in the 14th and 15th centuries in France and the Netherlands
  13. ^ Konrad von Würzburg: New Year's Eve. Published by Wilhelm Grimm. Göttingen Dieterichsche Buchhandlung, 1841 p.12. [6] accessed on March 27, 2020
  14. ^ Johann von Ringgenberg: In: Codex Manesse - Zurich, approx. 1300 to approx. 1340 p.191. [7] accessed on March 24, 2020
  15. ↑ [8]
  16. ↑ Hans Sachs: Very wonderful, beautiful and true poems, fables and good Schwenck . Raspischer Verlag Nuremberg. 1781, p. 145 [9] accessed on March 24, 2020
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Chants from the Singspiele Don Juan: In two acts . Ambrosische Schriften, Passau 1793 P.301 Digitized version accessed on March 28, 2020
  18. ↑ Johann Zeindl: Philosophical mourning poem about the early Hintrit Ihro Roman quays Majesty Josepha gebohrne Duchess of Bavaria... Wien 1767 publishing Kichberger S.301 Digitalisat accessed on March 28, 2020
  19. ↑ Oscar Wilde: Intentions. The Decay of Lying; Pen pencil and poison; The Critic as Artist; The Truth of Masks. London: James A. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co., 1891. Digitized from accessed March 28, 2020
  20. ^ Digitized by Hugo von Hofmannsthal: Irony of Things. In: Three small considerations. In: Collected works in ten individual volumes. Speeches and essays 1–3. Volume 2, Frankfurt aM 1979, pp. 138-141.
  21. ^ Friedrich Wolf: Modern German Idiomatics. Max Hueber Verlag. 1997. ISBN 978-3-19-001017-2 p.673 [10]
  22. ↑ Platform for phrases [11] , accessed on March 23, 2020
  23. ↑ bibleserver.com
  24. ↑ bibleserver.com
  25. ↑ Paeßmeyer: Excerpts from the Passion of Jesus in Lenten sermons in 1795, S. 149 ( books.google.de ).
  26. ↑ digital.francke-halle.de
  27. ↑ digitized version [12]
  28. ↑ Terry Breverton: Breverton's Nautical Curiosities: A Book of the Sea. Verlag LYONS PR., 2010, ISBN 978-1-59921-979-0 ( Digisat accessed on May 9, 2020).
  29. ↑ http://see-the-sea.org/nautical/naut-body.htm
  30. ^ A. Smythe Palmer: Folk-Etymology. Bell, Covent Garden [London] 1882, p. 29 f. ( Digitized version ); The bitter end at phrases.org.uk.
  31. ↑ Duden Redensarten p. 187 [13] accessed March 27, 2020
  32. ^ Arthur Keppel-Jones: South Africa Safari-Verlag, 1952. Page 192 [14]
  33. ↑ Christoph Marx: Under the sign of the ox wagon. LIT Verlag Münster, 1998, ISBN 3-8258-3907-9 , p. 573 ( limited preview in Google book search).
  34. ↑ Bender, Steffen: The Boer War and the German-Language Press: Perception and Interpretation between Boer Euphoria and Anglophobia, 1899–1902. ISBN 978-3-506-76714-1 Schoeningh Ferdinand GmbH Paderborn 2009>
  35. ^ Bertha von Suttner: In Heimgarten 1902 p. 362. Editor: Peter Rosegger. Leykam Verlag, Graz 1902.
  36. ↑ Edgar Wolfrum, Peter Fässler, Reinhard Grohnert: Years of Crisis and Time of Awakening. Everyday life and politics in French-occupied Baden. Oldenbourg Publishing House. Munich. 1996. Page 17. Digisat accessed on April 7, 2020
  37. ^ Fritz-Otto Busch: The German Navy in combat. Ships and deeds . Vier Tannen Verlag Augsburg, 1943 page 71 Digisat accessed on April 7, 2020
  38. ↑ from the core corpus of the digital dictionary of the German language, [15] accessed on March 25, 2020.