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An Annotated Survey of German Etymological Dictionaries and Glossaries i; Anatoly Liberman "n Western Europe comprehensive dictionaries of word ori- -gins have been known for 400 years. Kilianus published his work in 1599, Minsheu (or Minshaeus) in 1617, Helvigius in 1620, Ménage in 1694, Wächter in 1737.1 Later the pace of etymological lexicography quickened, and by 1900 some of the most famous dictionaries (Diez, Skeat, Kluge)2 had been written and had even gone into several editions. Different countries went different ways in codifying etymological information, and it is especially instructive to compare the English and the German traditions. In 1883, Friedrich Kluge brought out his celebrated dictionary, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, which was hailed as an outstanding achievement. Only Bezzenberger and Franck wrote negative reviews.3 As it turned out, the critics noted numerous spots but missed the sun. Kluge kept working on his dictionary until his death in 1926, but because he was blind in the last Cornelius Kilianus (a.k.a. Corneille Kiel), Etymologicum teutonicae linguae..., Antverpiae: Ex Officina Plantiana, apud Joannem Meretum, 1599; John Minsheu , Ductor in linguas. The Guide into Tongues... . Published by the author, 1617; Gilles Ménage (= Menagius), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue françoise. Paris: J. Anisson, 1694; On Helvigius and Wächter see nos. 1 and 2 in the text. 2Friederich Diez, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Sprachen. Bonn: A. Marcus 1853; 2d ed., 1861; 3d ed., 1869-1870; 4th ed., 1878; 5th ed., 1887. Walter W. Skeat, An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882; 2d ed., 1893; 3d ed., 1898. On Kluge see no. 6 below. 3Adalbert Bezzenberger in Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen 1 (1883), 385-402; Johannes Franck in Anzeiger für Deutsches Althertum und Deutsche Litteratur 1 1 (1885), 1-31. 50Anatoly Liberman years of his life, he depended on an amanuensis (Alfred Götze). In his lifetime ten editions of the dictionary came out, and almost all post1883 etymological dictionaries of German have been in some way derivative of Kluge's. Germany shows a model of the development of etymological lexicography: one dictionary is recognized as basic and the efforts of specialists are directed at improving it. The best etymological dictionary of English, by Skeat, appeared one year before Kluge's; then it was radically revised by the author only in 1910, shortly before his death, and no one has made an attempt to carry on his work. As a result , although still immensely useful, it is somewhat superannuated. Throughout the 20th century, etymological dictionaries of English have been appearing in a steady, unremarkable stream. So in retrospect , it is clear that the German model is the more efficient. The production of a good etymological dictionary is time-consuming, and it is worthwhile to keep improving one exemplary work rather than rebuild the entire edifice every time a new project is launched. The present survey follows the format of the one for English4 and pursues similar goals. Some older dictionaries are so scarce that even getting microfilms of them has become a problem; not too many people know about their existence. Others are more readily available, but hardly anyone consults them. But linguists who want to make a contribution to etymology and try to familiarize themselves with the history of their discipline are hampered in their efforts, for no bibliography of German etymological dictionaries exists. The list offered below is short, partly because etymological dictionaries of German are few, and partly because I must have missed some of them. Only dictionaries and glossaries, that is, books discussing word origins in alphabetical order, will be listed. Most dictionaries, except for Kluge's, will be represented by the words Haar 'hair' and Pfad 'path'. Both words are etymologically difficult. Haar has cognates in all the Germanic languages except Gothic, but its broader connections pose such grave problems that the reconstruction of the IE etymon is impossible. Within Germanic, it remains unclear whether Norw. dial, herrén 'stiff, hard', Old Icel. skçr 'rim, edge' and G Horst/ E. hurst are related to Haar. Pfad has only West Germanic cognates. Avestan pad is an embarrassment, because Germanic /p/ cannot not go...

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