mutterseelenallein

• mutterseelallein

18th century, from earlier mutterallein (16th c., literally “mother-alone”), which is either “as alone as a child in the womb”^[1] or more likely “as alone as a child bereft of its mother”. The contemporary form is equivalent to Mutterseele +‎ -n- +‎ allein, wherein the word Mutterseele (literally “mother soul”) is an emotive enhancement of Mutter (like the usual Menschenseele for Mensch).

Discredited theories derived it from mit der Seele allein (“with one's soul alone”) or from French moi tout seul (“me all alone”) + allein. The latter was supposedly introduced by Huguenot immigrants although the first Huguenots arrived in Germany around 1600 and the above mutterallein is attested earlier. From the German are Dutch moederziel alleen and Danish mutters alene.

• IPA^(key): /ˌmʊtɐˌzeːlən.aˈlaɪ̯n/, /ˈmʊtɐˌzeːlən.aˌlaɪ̯n/

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• Hyphenation: mut‧ter‧see‧len‧al‧lein

mutterseelenallein (strong nominative masculine singular mutterseelenalleiner, not comparable)

1. (chiefly predicative) utterly alone, all alone
   • 1826, Joseph von Eichendorff, Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts, page 108; translated as Batard Quincy Morgan, transl., Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing, Frederick Ungar, 1955, page 94:

     Da stand ich nun unter Gottes freiem Himmel wieder auf dem stillen Platze mutterseelen allein, wie ich gestern angekommen war.

     There I stood now under God's open sky, again in the silent square, forsaken and forlorn, just as when I had arrived the day before.

   • 1888, Theodor Storm, Der Schimmelreiter, volume 11, page 17; translated as “The Rider of the White Horse”, in Ewald Eiserhardt, transl., The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 1914, page 233:

     Stand eine Springfluth bevor, so konnte man sicher sein, er lag trotz Sturm und Wetter weit draußen am Deiche mutterseelenallein; und wenn die Möven gackerten, wenn die Wasser gegen den Deich tobten und beim Zurückrollen ganze Fetzen von der Grasdecke mit ins Meer hinabrissen, dann hätte man Hauke’s zorniges Lachen hören können.

     In spite of wind and weather he was certain to be found at the time of the high spring tides lying out on the dike all by himself; and when the gulls shrieked, when the waves dashed against the dike, and in rolling back washed out whole pieces of sod into the sea, Hauke's angry laughter was something worth hearing.

   • 1903, Grete Meisel-Heß, Das Leid:

     Schnee und Regen fällt und große braune Wasserlachen wachsen an. Niemand ist da; nur sie; mutterseelenallein.

     Snow and rain falls and big brown puddles grow. No one is there; only she; utterly alone.

• → Dutch: moederziel alleen (calque)

• “mutterseelenallein” in Duden online
• “mutterseelenallein” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.