Dolch
German
Etymology
Uncertain. First attested in the mid-15th century in Upper German texts as Dolch, then also Dollich, Tolch. At first mostly with weak declension (dem Dolchen). The formerly held assumption of a Slavic origin has been abandoned (older Czech tulich is instead a German borrowing).
The word is now mostly derived ultimately from Latin dolo (“pike, dagger”), but the origin of the velar remains unclear. It may be due to conflation with a descendant of Proto-West Germanic *dalk, *dolk (“pin, needle, clasp”), which is entirely unattested in Continental West Germanic, only being found in Old English dalc, dolc (“brooch, buckle, clasp”)). Another theory links it to Middle French dollequin (ca. 1400), from Old French dolequin, itself likely from Middle Dutch *dollekijn, a diminutive of Middle Dutch dolle (“dagger”, mid-14th c.), likely from the Latin. Compare early Dutch dolleken, dolck, dolch (modern Dutch dolk).
Pronunciation
Noun
Dolch m (strong, genitive Dolches or Dolchs, plural Dolche)
Declension
Hypernyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Descendants
References
- ^ “Dolo”, in: Harry Thurston Peck, Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, 1898, Harper & Brothers
- ^ “Dolch”, in: Wolfgang Pfeifer et al., Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 1993, published at www.dwds.de
- ^ “Dolch”, in: Kluge/Seebold, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 24th ed., 2002, de Gruyter
- ^ “Dolch”, in: Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm Grimm, 2nd ed., 1965-2018, published at www.dwds.de
- ^ van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “dolk1”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute
Further reading
- “Dolch” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “Dolch” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
- “Dolch” in Duden online
- “Dolch” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
Dolch on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia de
