abomination
The word abomination (new word from synonymous with abomination ) denotes something that causes horror . In the German-speaking culture it was shaped by the Bible . In modern parlance, particularly cruel and sacrificial acts, such as war crimes , are referred to as atrocities or atrocities. Warring parties accuse each other of atrocities in the context of psychological warfare . To ward off such accusations, the word atrocity propaganda came up in German during the First World War .
Language history
Abomination , before the spelling reform in 1996 and not officially afterwards, abomination from Middle High German griuwel, griul, griule , "horror, horror" was regressed from Middle High German griuweln "feel gray / disgust / fear, gray", new high German abhorrent .
The word Gräuel owes its peculiar role in the German language to its frequent occurrence in Luther's translation of the Bible . It occurs in 135 verses in the Old Testament and seven times in the New Testament , including in compositions such as atrocity and atrocity .
Luther chose the term, which was quite common at the time, for the German rendering of the Hebrew expression תֹּועֵבָה tōʻēḇā / to'ba (noun) or ta'ab (verb). This qualifies the outrage, the despicable, that which is to be excluded from one's own community. It is classified as dangerous; he has the quality of disgusting . This extended from the social and religious over the area of the food to sexuality and the law . Pronounced in the area of the Old Testament, the term was expanded in the Talmud and Mishnah and was decisive for New Testament norms.
In the books of Moses in particular , the warning against violations of the law is reinforced with the phrase that the respective act is "an abomination to the Lord", or rather, it "should be an abomination to you". The most varied of legal violations are classified as atrocities, for example:
- 3Mo 11,10 - But everything that has no fins and scales in the sea and in the brooks, everything that stirs in the water and everything that lives in the water, shall be an abomination to you.
- 5Mo 22,5 - A woman should not wear men's clothes and a man should not put on women's clothes; for whoever does this is an abomination to the LORD your God.
Atrocity occurs nineteen times as a stereotype in Proverbs of Solomon , for example:
- Prov. 03:32 - For the wrongdoer is an abomination to the Lord, but his secret (his intimate company) is with the upright.
- Proverbs 11: 1 - False scales are an abomination to the Lord; but full weight is his pleasure.
- Prov 16,5 - A proud heart is an abomination to the LORD and will certainly not go unpunished.
In Low German, the form “Gruul” for disgust is still common today.
Individual evidence
- ^ FAZ : On our own behalf: FAZ adjusts spelling. December 2, 2006
- ^ Etymological dictionary of German (after Pfeifer) on DWDS , accessed on June 22, 2011.
- ^ Friedrich Kluge , Alfred Götze : Etymological dictionary of the German language . 20th edition, ed. by Walther Mitzka . De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1967; Reprint (“21st unchanged edition”) ibid 1975, ISBN 3-11-005709-3 , p. 269 f. ( Horror and horror ).
literature
- Jenni / Westermann: Theological concise dictionary for the Old Testament , תעב ", 1051"
