Sadness

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The sadness ( listen ? / I ) ( French [ tʀisˈ.tɛs ] " sorrow ; sadness ") describes a feeling or an aesthetic impression of sadness, gloom, lamentation or desolation. It can be used to describe emotions or moods as well as to designate states, objects or places. In this case, the term expresses boredom , dullness, or lack of variety. Audio file / audio sample

The adjective trist is used more often in German than the noun Tristesse . The term was derived from the French word triste by German students towards the end of the 18th century . In the first time after adopting the French foreign word , the missing "e" is often found in the German language. The entire word field is considered to have a negative connotation .

In the 20th century, the adjective trist became part of the German vocabulary, whereas the noun Tristesse is still recognizable as a French foreign word.

Etymology and history of words

The word tristesse has been used in Germany since the end of the 18th century. It is a loan word from French . According to Friedrich Seiler , the term was taken over from a need for richer and finer tones of expression, which results from an increasing deepening and refinement of the perception, together with a whole series of epithets.

When the word was borrowed, a change in meaning took place: If tristesse still simply means “sadness” in French, the term acquired an aesthetic dimension in German. However, a close link between emotion and aesthetics is already old. As early as the 4th century, Augustine of Hippo asked in his work De vera religione : Quaeram utrum ideo pulchra sint, quia delectant; to ideo delectent, quia pulchra sunt. (Are the beautiful things beautiful because they bring joy, or do they give joy because they are beautiful?) The use of emotional terms to describe aesthetic feelings is also common in German (examples: “a sad picture”, “a friendly arrangement ").

In French, the term is first used in 1145 in a book by the Norman poet Wace with the title La conception de Notre Dame . The word can also be found in the novel de Troie by Benoît de Sainte-Maure from the 12th century. Examples of the use of the word tristesse in the 17th century can be found in Nicolas Boileau's 1683 or Randle Cotgrave's 1611 . In the late 19th century they can be found at Léon Cladel's in Ompdrailles, le Tombeau-des-Lutteurs from 1879.

In the other strongly influenced by the French dialects and small languages the term is always similar, is from the French triste in Walloon triss and Provencal dull or dreary . The root of the word is also retained in other Romance languages , examples being Italian dreary and Spanish dreary .

But the common root is the Latin word tristis , which had different meanings. When used with fatum (fate), morbus (death) or bellum (war), it can be translated as "unlucky, mournful, ominous or dangerous". When used in terms of senex (age) or vita (life), however, it is often viewed as "unfriendly, serious or strict". In Charon von Lampsakos , tristis can be found in vultus (the expression) or navita (the sailor) in the meaning "grim, hard" or "dark". In connection with sapor (the taste) it can also be translated as "bitter, tart" or "disgusting". With amici (the friend) it finally means "sad". The associated noun tristitia is mainly used to mean "sadness".

The Latin word tristis in turn goes back to the ancient Greek δρίμύς ( drimos ), which is translated as "penetrating, sharp, tart or bitter". But there also seems to be a relationship to the Anglo-Saxon priste in the meaning “bold, bold” and praestan , which means “to press”. The language root would then be treis , which is translated as “press”.

Literature - Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour tristesse - book design by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich

The word was first used in German literature at the beginning of the 18th century by Franz von Gaudy ("Days and weeks passed boring and dreary with quarter portions") or by Christian Dietrich Grabbe ("Oh, so I have to get fat Konrad, because it has become terribly dreary again since the old road was repaired ”). At that time, however, the term was still rarely used in literature, it was easy to recognize as a foreign word and its meaning was vague and iridescent.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe mentions the expression several times at the same time. So it can be found in the Italian journey from the years 1786–1788: “The coffee that gave me a very own dreary mood” or in the maxims and reflections : “... but there is something dreary through everything, one thing indicates a certain depressed state and certainly does not raise the reader, if he does not pull himself down. "

Heinrich Heine uses the term as follows: "Never has a human word made a more gloomy and painful impression on me." The sadness can also be found in Pückler , ETA Hoffmann , Fontane and Jean Paul .

Gottfried Benn titled one of his well-known poems Tristesse . There it says in the last paragraph, which impressively describes the feeling of sadness:

And then November, loneliness, sadness,
Grave or stick that carries the paralyzed man -
the heavens do not bless, only the cypress
the mourning tree stands tall and motionless.

In 1954, Bonjour tristesse , the first novel by 18-year-old Françoise Sagan about the sadness of growing up , was published in France . Her book became an international bestseller and was filmed by Otto Preminger in 1958 ( Bonjour Tristesse ). The title of the novel became a winged word in German.

Trivia

At the end of the 1980s, in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg , the words “Bonjour Tristesse” were sprayed on the gable of the corner building at Schlesische Strasse No. 7 (architect Álvaro Siza Vieira ) by an unknown sprayer . This should probably be understood as a criticism of the conspicuously ornamentless, gray facade, which, within the predominantly Wilhelminian style, heterogeneous street scene, is characterized by a strict, regular and almost square window grid without window crosses. The architect and Pritzker Prize winner Siza Vieira (1992) felt himself to be honored and flattered by this typical Berlin nickname for buildings (according to his own statement in a lecture at the TU Berlin) and therefore had the lettering renewed several times at his own expense in the past. That is why the house is now known in architectural history under the name “ Bonjour Tristesse ”.

The composer Enrique Santos Discépolo coined the famous phrase: " Tango is the sad thought that you can dance."

literature

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Seiler: The development of German culture in the mirror of the German loan word. Verlag der Buchhandlung des Waisenhauses, Halle an der Saale 1912, p. 213 ff.
  2. ↑ Augustine of Hippo: De vera religione. Chapter 32.
  3. ↑ Wace: La conception de Notre Dame . Published by WR Ashford. University of Chicago, Chicago 1933, p. 469.
  4. ↑ Benoit de Sainte-Maure: Roman de Troie . Edited by L. Constans. Firmin Didot, Paris 1904, p. 5260.
  5. ^ Nicolas Boileau: Le Lutrin . In: Ch.-H. Boudhors (Ed.): Odes . 2nd Edition. Paris 1960, p. 165.
  6. ↑ Randle Cotgrave: A Dictionarie French and English. Published for the benefite of the studious in that language. Reprint, Edition Olms, Hombrechtikon / Zurich 1977.
  7. ^ Léon Cladel: Ompdrailles, le Tombeau-des-Lutteurs . Cinqualbre, Paris 1879, p. 103.
  8. ↑ JM Stowasser, M. Petschenig, F. Skutsch: Stowasser. Latin-German school dictionary. Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-209-01495-7 , p. 524 f.
  9. ^ Hermann Osthoff: Morphological investigations in the field of the Indo-European languages. Olms, Leipzig, reprint 1974, ISBN 3-487-05080-3 .
  10. ^ Henry Lewis, Holger Pedersen: A Concise Comparative Celtic Grammar. 3. Edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1989, ISBN 978-3-525-26102-6 .
  11. ^ Franz von Gaudy: The Sistine Chapel . In: Arthur Müller (ed.): Complete works . Volume 2, published by M. Hofmann & Comp., Berlin 1853, p. 149.
  12. ^ Christian Dietrich Grabbe: Works . Volume 1, p. 404.
  13. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Works, Volume 27. S. 185.
  14. ↑ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Works, Volume 21. S. 100.
  15. ^ Heinrich Heine: Lutezia, reports on politics, art and folk life. 34. Heinrich Heine Institute, Hamburg 1990.
  16. ^ Hermann von Pückler-Muskau: Letters and Diaries. Volume 1, Stuttgart 1840-41, p. 332.
  17. ^ ETA Hoffmann: Complete works in 15 volumes. Volume 8. Edited by E. Griesebach. Leipzig 1900, p. 137.
  18. ^ Theodor Fontane: Collected works. 1st series: novels and short stories. Volume 2, Berlin 1890-91, p. 217.
  19. ^ Jean Paul: Complete Works. Reimer (Ed.) 1826-38, Volume 39, p. 58.
  20. ↑ Gottfried Benn: Tristesse. In: The Complete Poems. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-608-93449-9 , p. 316.
  21. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Mende, Kurt Wernicke (Ed.): Berlin District Lexicon Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg; Keyword: Bonjour Tristesse house. Haude & Spener, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-7759-0474-3 , pp. 402, 403.