broken
The adjective kaputt means 'in two, broken, torn, destroyed'. The object is therefore not or no longer in a functional condition. The word that cannot actually be increased has the forms of increase “kaputter, most kaputtesten”. The word expresses a definitive, or at least not just temporary, condition that requires repair .
distribution
The word has a special international meaning, as it seeped from German into many other languages. Sometimes it is used there itself and replaces the typical national words that are mostly derived from a verb, such as broken , out of order ( English ), χαλασμένος [chalasménos] ( modern Greek ) or rotto ( Italian ). It is understood at least as a typically German word (such as “please”, “thank you” and similar words). The internationality is also due to the fact that in most languages there is no similar native word with the sound "kaputt". It seems that other languages have taken over the word “kaputt” from the German-speaking area. The English spelling "kaput" is preferred, and the Dutch spelling "kapot".
The word achieved high popularity especially shortly after the Second World War and the capture of Berlin by the Red Army , when the saying "Hitler kaputt" was used worldwide.
Colloquially, the word is also used for people. It can be used for “being exhausted”, but also for “emotionally damaged” (“broken guy”).
etymology
Where the use in the German-speaking area comes from is largely unclear. A base as a verb is not known. However, it has been documented in writing since it was used as an expression in card games during the Thirty Years War , when all previous tricks were lost.
(a) French . - The most likely interpretation goes back to a French word capot . This is proven at least for use in card games ( faire capot , être capot ) if all previous tricks are lost. The equivalent in German dialect was "ruin".
This French root is in turn traced back to capoter for "capsize" - which is supposed to have its justification in capot as the basic meaning for the front part of a ship (nowadays also the bonnet) - which in turn is traced back to the Latin caput for "head" .
It is of course also possible that the use in French dialect was taken over from the German colloquial language and was subsequently related to the French capoter .
(b) Hebrew . - In the Hebrew language there is the word kaparôt for “atonement”, “reconciliation”. This has a related term in Yiddish : the kapores are the chickens that are beaten on the Day of Atonement. On that day "kapores " were beaten, which went into the crooks language as "kapores" and meant something like "knock down" to "kill".
This meaning comes very close to the use of “broken” and it makes a good use of it in the card game as “knock down previous tricks”.
(c) Latin . - Instead of using French, a direct derivation from church Latin can also be found. According to this, “kaputt” comes from the Latin caput , but not in the classical meaning of “head”, but from the later medieval expression caput esse = “become unnecessary”, “to be unusable”. This came from the word meaning “you have to start everything again” = “ take it back to your head ”, which was often used in (Latin) legal texts.
See also
literature
- Alfred Sohn-Rethel : The ideal of the broken. About Neapolitan technology. Edited and with an afterword by Carl Freytag. Wassmann, Bremen 1990, ISBN 3-926182-13-X . (First in the Frankfurter Zeitung of March 21, 1926, first Morgenblatt.)
Web links
supporting documents
- ↑ http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/kaputt
- ↑ Duden - dictionary of origin. Etymology of the German language Mannheim: Dudenverlag 2001 Volume 7, 3rd edition p. 391 (entry broken ).
- ↑ Duden - dictionary of origin, pp. 390f. (Entry kapores ).