Origin
Urstands (from Old High German urstenti " resurrection ") is a phraseologically isolated word in modern German and is only used in the expression "celebrate happy Urständ" (or a variant of it). The expression refers, with a condescending or ironic undertone, to the reappearance of something that has been forgotten, past, or believed to have been overcome. It is mostly found in journalistic texts. In the opinion of Wolf Schneider and Paul-Josef Raue ( Handbuch des Journalismus ) it is “an empty phrase that most readers have never understood”.
The word means "resurrection", and is found in the late Middle Ages, literally, but already clichéd, on tombstones as "Here rests ... until he may celebrate a solemn birth" ("Here rests ... until his solemn resurrection"). The phrase is still alive in the 17th century, for example in Friedrich Spees The whole world, Lord Jesus Christ (1623):
The whole world, Lord Jesus Christ, alleluia, alleluia,
is joyful in your origin. Alleluia, alleluia.
Already in this song the word is connected with “happy” (here, however, predicative to “world”), which is why it is the origin of the modern idiom . The isolated "happy original" is often perceived as plural by today's speakers, but is a feminine singular.
G. Rippel (or the editor of his book, Ignaz Riedle) said in The Beauty of the Catholic Church in its Sacred Ceremonies and External Uses during the Church Year (revised edition from 1896) about the name Easter (incorrectly): “It is likely to come from the old German word 'Urstand', d. H. Resurrection."
Individual evidence
- ^ Wolf Schneider, Paul-Josef Raue: Handbook of Journalism . Updated paperback edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1998, 345 pp., ISBN 3-499-60434-5 , p. 220
- ↑ Scientific advice of the Duden editorial team: Günther Drosdowski… (ed.): Der Duden; Vol. 11 - idioms and proverbial idioms . Dudenverlag Mannheim, Leipzig, Vienna, Zurich 1992, ISBN 3-411-04111-0