 | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(November 2021) |
Wolfgang Pfeifer (3 December 1922 in Leipzig - 9 July 2020 in Berlin) was a German scholar and linguist.
| | This article relies largely or entirely on a single source .(November 2021) |
Wolfgang Pfeifer (3 December 1922 in Leipzig - 9 July 2020 in Berlin) was a German scholar and linguist.
Wolfgang Pfeifer studied German, Scandinavian studies, English, historical linguistics and history. After completing his doctorate at the University of Leipzig in 1950, he worked as a researcher at the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, where he worked on the German Dictionary of the Grimm Brothers from 1949 to 1960. In 1961, together with other collaborators, he received the I. Class National Prize of the GDR for the completion of the German Dictionary.
Pfeifer published numerous contributions to linguistics, linguistic and word history and lexicography. Of particular scientific importance is the Etymological Dictionary of German, which was compiled under his direction by a collective of eight to ten authors at the Berlin Academy. The first edition was published in May 1989 and has been updated ever since, most recently online as a component in the Digital Dictionary of the German Language.
Wolfgang Pfeifer, father of two daughters by his first marriage and widowed, was married in the 1980s to Gerlinde Pfeifer, who was also a member of the authors' collective of the Etymological Dictionary. He lived in Berlin.
Hans Magnus Enzensberger considered him the most important German etymologist after the Grimm Brothers, Hermann Paul and Friedrich Kluge.
The German orthography reform of 1996 was a change to German spelling and punctuation that was intended to simplify German orthography and thus to make it easier to learn, without substantially changing the rules familiar to users of the language.
The Duden is a dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880, and later by Bibliographisches Institut GmbH. The Duden is updated regularly with new editions appearing every four or five years. As of December 2020, it is in its 28th edition. It is printed as twelve volumes, with each volume covering different aspects of the German language such as loanwords, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, etc.
Friedrich Kluge was a German philologist and educator. He is known for the Kluge etymological dictionary of the German language, which was first published in 1883.
The Deutsches Wörterbuch, abbreviated DWB, is the largest and most comprehensive dictionary of the German language in existence. Encompassing modern High German vocabulary in use since 1450, it also includes loanwords adopted from other languages into German. Entries cover the etymology, meanings, attested forms, synonyms, usage peculiarities, and regional differences of words found throughout the German speaking world. The dictionary's historical linguistics approach, illuminated by examples from primary source documents, makes it to German what the Oxford English Dictionary is to English. The first completed DWB lists over 330,000 headwords in 67,000 print columns spanning 32 volumes.
An etymological dictionary discusses the etymology of the words listed. Often, large dictionaries, such as the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's, will contain some etymological information, without aspiring to focus on etymology.
Konrad Alexander Friedrich Duden was a Gymnasium teacher who became a philologist. He founded the well-known German language dictionary bearing his name Duden.
The Züriputsch of 6 September 1839 was a putsch of the rural conservative population against the liberal rule of the city of Zürich on the eve of the formation of the Swiss federal state. The reason for the putsch was the appointment of the controversial German theologian David Strauss to the theological faculty of the University of Zürich by the liberal government. The rural population saw the old religious order in danger.
In German folklore, a drude is a kind of malevolent nocturnal spirit associated with nightmares, prevalent especially in Southern Germany. Druden were said to participate in the Wild Hunt and were considered a particular class of demon in Alfonso de Spina's hierarchy. The word also came to be used as a generic term for "witch" in the 16th century.
A reverse dictionary is a dictionary alphabetized by the reversal of each entry:
The Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, abbreviated Wb in bibliographic references, is a large German-language dictionary of the Egyptian language published between 1926 and 1961 by Adolf Erman and Hermann Grapow. It is a comprehensive work encompassing 3000 years of linguistic history, including Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian as well as hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Classical Greco-Roman period. The dictionary contains approximately 16,000 headwords in five main volumes, two secondary volumes, and five volumes of primary source references. It is therefore the largest and most complete printed dictionary of Ancient Egyptian in existence.
Upper German is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in the southern German-speaking area.
Schweizerisches Idiotikon is an ongoing, major project of lexicography of the Swiss German dialects. Publication began in 1881 and is projected to be complete by 2022. Its scope includes the language since the end of the classical Middle High German period and as such also represents the historical dictionary of the dialects of German-speaking Switzerland, and is one of the most detailed treatments of the Early Modern High German language in general. As of 2010, it contains 150,000 words.
Edward Schröder was a Germanist and mediaevalist who was a professor at the University of Göttingen and published editions of numerous texts.
Quark or quarg is a type of fresh dairy product made from milk. The milk is soured, usually by adding lactic acid bacteria cultures, and strained once the desired curdling is achieved. It can be classified as fresh acid-set cheese. Traditional quark can be made without rennet, but in modern dairies small quantities of rennet are typically added. It is soft, white and unaged, and usually has no salt added. It is traditional in the cuisines of Baltic, Germanic and Slavic-speaking countries.
The Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch (DRW) or Dictionary of Historical German Legal Terms is a historic legal dictionary developed under the aegis of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The research unit took up work in 1897 and until today has completed 93,155 articles, ranging from Aachenfahrt to selbzwölft. These have been published in 12 consecutive volumes and are also freely accessible online. In course of its research, the DRW also touches upon sources in Old English, of Hanseatic provenance and Pennsylvania German. The research unit will presumably conclude its work in 2036.
The Deuce is the playing card with the highest value in German card games. It may have derived its name from dice games in which the face of the die with two pips is also called a Daus in German.
Elmar Seebold is a German philologist who specializes in Germanic philology. From 1971 to 1983, Seebold was Professor of Germanic philology at the University of Fribourg. He then transferred to the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Seebold retired from the University in 1999. He is the editor of the Etymological Dictionary of the German Language.
Heinz Schuster-Šewc was a German Sorbian Slavicist and retired university professor.
A Scherf was a low-value silver coin used in Erfurt and other cities of the Holy Roman Empire from the Middle Ages to the 18th century. The name was later also given to a copper coin with a value of about half a pfennig. The simple scherf was only rarely minted; coins of 3, 6 and 12 scherf were more common, most recently in 1777 in Lüneburg.