People
People is a plural tantum for people or persons .
Word origin
It is derived from an Old High German , masculine or neuter word liut meaning "the people ", " ethnic group " or "population", but in particular "followers", "folk comrades", according to Grimm, Latin populus . In Middle High German there is also the liut and da ჳ liut "people", but increasingly also in the plural the liute "people", Latin homines . The singular is then gone.
meaning
To this day it describes (out of date) the population of an area or country, literally z. B. in "Land und Menschen", in this sense it is part of the title in numerous works (e.g. in Die Menschen von Seldwyla by Gottfried Keller) - the exact meaning of the phrase "Land und Menschen" is 'members of the people' , that is, 'the people as a whole, people's body', and that in particular in express delimitation from a ruler: "the common people"
The term is also narrowed to one's own family, loved ones ( affable , leutscheu ) or dependent, obsolete, for example, the servants on estates and farms (see Leutekaffee ), or people `` war people , crowd '', such as Leuteschinder , a `` ruthless '' Supervisor'. In today's usage, "people" generally refers to the entourage , the following , more modern the supporters and the team ("he and his people"), also the workforce ("additionally hire people")
"Better to lose the country and its people than swear
a false oath."
"I am Palatine Götz von Tübingen
selling castle and city
with people, Gülten, field and forest."
It is unspecific for people without any concrete information, for example in "the people say ...", "mingle with the people", alongside the pejoration "the others, the strangers", exaggerated by the humorist:
"People are good, only people are bad."
Or positively exaggerated 'the excellent people':
In addition, it becomes a counting word , as a plural to one in relation to man or person , and forms a contrast to the counting word man, or remains completely unspecific:
- one man, two men, twenty men (military), and space for twenty people , three people each died for the specific number, while a few people , space for many people, takes the role of the indefinite number ( a few people would have died disrespectfully phrased)
The attached -leute is in modern German a grammatically correct plural of compound nouns on househusband (z. B. sailors to sailors , captains to captain ).
Colloquially / dialectally, a general plural -people is used , e.g. B. womenfolk , womenfolk - the latter also womenfolk , in the original meaning. There is also a retrograde singular here: the woman is a woman.
Name customer
In the sense of 'people' in its nuances, it can also be found in old Germanic names , where it can be interpreted in this sense without establishing an overly precise relationship between the two syllables:
- Liutbald - 'Volk und kühn', derived from Luitpold and Leopold
- Liutfrid - 'People and Peace' (for example in the etichons )
- Liutgard, Luitgard , Lütegard u. Ä. - 'People and protection'
- Liutger - 'people and spear ', derived from Lutger and Lutgar forms such as Leodgar , Leodegar , Leodigar, Léger u. v. a.
- Liuthold, Liutold , Luit (h) old - 'People and Blessings'
The vowel swapping “iu” → “ui” with a tendency to the “ü” is remarkable and can also be found as such in the diutisc “ deutsch ” mhd. About tuitsch , dial. tütsch , the one from the reconstructed Urm. Root * Þeudō is also rich in name-building - just like the twist of the two synonymous words German people 'German people' is popular up to modern times.
literature
- PEOPLE, pl. homines. . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm : German Dictionary . Hirzel, Leipzig 1854–1961 ( woerterbuchnetz.de , University of Trier).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Grimm: People 5) people, the inhabitants of a country or region, a municipality
- ↑ Grimm: People 3) the original meaning of people, comrades, members of the people
- ↑ already ahd .: " to brêf skrib̄un (the emperor's officials) swîðo niudlîkonamôno gihwilîkan, ja land ja liudî " Heliand 354; quoted n. Grimm: people 3)
- ↑ Grimm: People 9)
- ↑ Grimm: People 7)
- ↑ a b Grimm: People 8)
- ↑ Grimm: People 10) people, collectively dependent or serving
- ↑ a b Quotation selection according to vocabulary: people ( memento of the original from December 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . German vocabulary, wortschatz.uni-leipzig.de
- ↑ Grimm: People 18 people, in a concise sense, right, outstanding people
- ↑ Grimm: People 12, 13
- ↑ Grimm: People 23 mundarten have become plur. people sing. people educated in the sense of single person
