taugen
German
Etymology
From Middle High German tougen, tugen, tügen, from Old High German tugan (attested since the 9th century); from Proto-Germanic *duganą, from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewgʰ- (“to produce”).[1]
Germanic Cognates include Yiddish טויגן (toygn), Old Saxon dugan, Dutch deugen (> Afrikaans deug), Old English dugan (obsolete Modern English dow), Old Norse duga (> Icelandic duga, Faroese duga, Norwegian duge, Swedish duga, Danish du) and Gothic 𐌳𐌿𐌲𐌰𐌽 (dugan). Related to German Tugend and tüchtig.
Non-Germanic-Cognates include Ancient Greek τύχη (túkhē, “fate, chance, luck”), Irish dual (“proper, fitting”), Scottish Gaelic duan (“song, poem, harmonious sounds”), Sanskrit दोग्धि (dṓgdhi, “to milk, to extract”), Lithuanian daũg (“much”), Latvian daudz (“much, a lot”).[2]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈtaʊ̯ɡn̩]
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: tau‧gen
Verb
taugen (weak, third-person singular present taugt, past tense taugte, past participle getaugt, auxiliary haben)
- to be fit
- Er taugt nicht für diese Arbeit.
- He's not up to the job.
- 1882, Richard Wagner, Parsifal, Dritter Aufzug:
- Nur eine Waffe taugt: / die Wunde schliesst / der Speer nur, der sie schlug.
- But one weapon serves: / only the Spear that smote you / can heal your wound.
- (Austria, Bavaria, Southern, intransitive) to like, to be pleased, to enjoy
Conjugation
infinitive | taugen | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
present participle | taugend | ||||
past participle | getaugt | ||||
auxiliary | haben | ||||
indicative | subjunctive | ||||
singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
present | ich tauge | wir taugen | i | ich tauge | wir taugen |
du taugst | ihr taugt | du taugest | ihr tauget | ||
er taugt | sie taugen | er tauge | sie taugen | ||
preterite | ich taugte | wir taugten | ii | ich taugte1 | wir taugten1 |
du taugtest | ihr taugtet | du taugtest1 | ihr taugtet1 | ||
er taugte | sie taugten | er taugte1 | sie taugten1 | ||
imperative | taug (du) tauge (du) |
taugt (ihr) |
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.
Related terms
- Taugenichts m
- tüchtig
- Tugend f
References
- Ringe, Donald (2006) From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic (A Linguistic History of English; 1), Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN
- Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “taugen”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN
Further reading
- “taugen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “taugen” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
- “taugen” in Duden online
- “taugen” in OpenThesaurus.de