Spiders (colloquial)

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The colloquial use of the verb “ spinnen ” is pejorative and can be paraphrased as: “ attach foolish thoughts; harbor strange thoughts; not being right in your mind , or pondering, figuring out; fantasize be spanned, mad to be . "

etymology

The meaning mentioned comes from different roots. The meaning of spinnen in its colloquial and high German sense is understood as a derivation from a common older group of words to which today's verb ›spannen‹ also belongs. This group represents the oldest tribe, which extends into Old High German , i.e. H. can be traced back to the 7th century. Indo-European references can even be identified, of which only the ancient Greek meaning of ὁ σφῄν (sphen) = "wedge, span" is mentioned. The noun  › span ‹ also shows this relationship to the root word ›span‹. The verb ›spinnen‹ in the transferred colloquial usage derives first of all from the high German artisan term of › spinning ‹ of threads, which when translated means as much as “spin the fine thread of a thought”. Anyone who thinks about the coherent text of a speech also forms the continuous "(red) thread of the train of thought". The comparison of the train of thought when thinking with the thread guiding when spinning at the same time represents the point of contact with the meanings of the mentioned oldest group of words around the stem of ›span‹. The concrete context of meaning can be established with the “pulling out and stretching of the threads, the turning of the thread goes ahead in spinning ”.

A slightly pejorative meaning is already discernible from the colloquial variant ›spintieren‹, which has been used since the 16th century. It can be thought of as “ brooding, figuring out; fantasize, ponder; brooding uselessly; thinking wrong ". Both of the sources mentioned above indicate the origin of the verb ›spintieren‹ as uncertain, but its use has been consistently documented since the 16th century. Based on the “today's sense of language” mentioned, it can therefore only be assumed that there is also a connection here with the Indo-European and Old German word group for the verb ›span‹ in the purely mechanical meaning of “stretch, pull, fasten”. - However, this root includes u. a. also the term › ghost ‹. In the Germanic language, this word means something like “temptation, diabolical illusion, mental apparition” and could therefore also be the starting point for a pejorative psychological meaning, cf. a. the unrealistic notion of a pipe dream . - A positive psychological meaning of the root words around today's verb ›span‹ is proven in Middle High German in the sense of “being full of desire, being excited”, cf. the meaning of today's adjective ›exciting‹.

Social history

The clearly pejorative meaning of the verb ›spinnen‹ derives from social history. From ancient times, the spinning of wool, flax and hemp was mainly done by women . Since the 17th century there were spinning houses , which had the character of penal institutions. The forced labor often performed in them in times of need therefore rubbed off on the spinning activity and on those who work in such institutions themselves. This can be understood as a form of discrimination and stigmatization of the group of people working there. There were women, especially soldiers' wives, children and the poor, beggars, vagabonds, antisocial, immoral, especially prostitutes, Lustsieche, orphans, the chronically ill, crippled, old people, homosexuals, "infidels", prisoners and mental patients as well as other the reason contradictory lives locked up. Karl Marx later named this group of people - as a result of their politically manipulative use - as "light infantry of capital".

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Heinz Küpper : Handy dictionary of German everyday language . Claassen-Verlag, Hamburg 1968; (ab) Wb lemma "spinning": p. 365; (c) Wb-Lemma “spintieren”: p. 365.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Günther Drosdowski: Etymology. Dictionary of origin of the German language; The history of German words and foreign words from their origins to the present . 2nd Edition. Dudenverlag, Volume 7, Mannheim, 1997, ISBN 3-411-20907-0 ; (a) Wb-Lemma “spintisiert” (Bed. based on older evidence and today's feeling for language): p. 693; (b) Wb-Lemma “spinnen”: p. 693; (c) Wb-Lemma “spintisiert” (cited according to older documents): p. 693; (d) Wb-Lemma “tension”: p. 686; (e) Wb-Lemma “Ghost”: p. 238; (f) see (d); (g) see (b).
  3. ^ Klaus Dörner : Citizens and Irre. On the social history and sociology of science in psychiatry . (1969) Fischer Taschenbuch, Bücher des Wissens, Frankfurt / M. 1975, ISBN 3-436-02101-6 , pp. 190-195.
  4. ↑ Cloth manufacture . In: Werner Sombart : Modern Capitalism . 2nd Edition. Munich 1916/17, Volume I, p. 815.
  5. ↑ Erwin H. Ackerknecht : Brief history of psychiatry . 3. Edition. Enke, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-432-80043-6 , chap. IV: Psychiatry in the 17th Century, A detailed list of the group of those politically “marginalized” by the absolutist government can be found on p. 29.
  6. ^ Karl Marx : The capital. Critique of Political Economy . Volume I. In: Marx / Engels: Works . Volume 23, p. 693.