finished

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The adjective finished is derived from the Middle High German vertec or vertic , which means something like 'ready to set off or ready to go', 'flexible' or 'usual'.

origin

It is etymologically related to vart, which meant 'ready' or 'capable', 'passable', 'drivable' or 'in order'. Hence it could also acquire the evaluative meaning: as a designation for the fact that something or someone is good, right or righteous, skillful, agile or capable, in short, has the appropriate skill .

use

The train supervisor gives the ready signal .
  • The word is used when an object or process has reached a state with regard to the intended purpose that represents a certain conclusion, even if it may remain accessible for further improvement and continuation - in this sense the word is just as peculiar for the German as broken for the opposite.
  • In the sense of 'being ready' or 'being prepared', finished was used for years as a departure command by train conductors , followed by a whistle from the whistle . (Quote: “The trains only depart when the conductors have informed the train driver that the train is ready.”) In this sense, the preliminary stage for dispatching is ready .
  • As an interjection , in sport it is the middle command at the start (on your marks! - ready! - go!).

In contrast, there is a pejoration of the expression:

  • with being ready one expresses the state of great exhaustion with regard to a person in the opposite manner; someone has come to the end of his strength.
  • the idioms are analogous to ` ` destroy someone ''
  • and ready and done as an exaggeration in the sense of 'completely, completely finished' (with fix from Latin fixare ' to fasten', in the broader sense then synonymous with finished ' repaired ').

See also

Web link

Wiktionary: done  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Lexer : Middle High German Pocket Dictionary. With the addenda by Ulrich Pretzel. 38th edition. Hirzel, Stuttgart 1992.
  2. ^ Eisenbahnfreunde Wehratal eV: "Manning" .
  3. ^ Knaur: The German dictionary. Lexografisches Institut, Munich 1985, p. 375.