I've been reading several books on the early Nazi party. "Nazi", of course, comes from the full name of the party which was "Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei" - the "National Socialist German Workers Party" or "NSDAP."
"Worker" in German is "Arbeiter", which sounds a lot like "arbiter", "arbitrate" and "arbitrary", which got me wondering how "arbitrate" became "arbitrary."
According to this online etymological dictionary, the "arbit" words have roots as follow:
arbiterSo, it looks like an "arbiter" is someone who is selected "to go somewhere", particularly in the sense of a judge or witness, at which point they render a decision based on their reason or will as an "arbitrator", but people who render their decisions purely from their will, as opposed to settled principle or law, can be called "arbitrary."
c.1500, from L. arbiter "one who goes somewhere (as witness or judge)," from ad- "to" + baetere "to come, go." The spec. sense of "one chosen by two disputing parties to decide the matter" is from 1540s. The earliest form of the word attested in English is the fem. noun arbitress (mid-14c.) "a woman who settles disputes."
arbitrate
1580s, from L. arbitratus, pp. of arbitrari "to give a decision," from arbiter (see arbiter). In modern usage, an arbiter makes decisions of his own accord and is accountable to no one but himself; an arbitrator (early 15c.) decides issues referred to him by the parties.
arbitrator
early 15c., from O.Fr. arbitratour (13c.), from L. arbitratorem "a spectator, hearer, witness, judge," agent noun from arbitratus, pp. of arbitrari, from arbiter (see arbiter). The legal form of popular arbiter.
arbitrary
early 15c., "deciding by one's own discretion," from L. arbitrarius "depending on the will, uncertain," from arbiter (see arbiter). The original meaning gradually descended to "capricious" and "despotic" (1640s).
arbitration
late 14c., "absolute decision," from O.Fr. arbitracion, from L. arbitrationem (nom. arbitratio) "judgment, will," noun of action from arbitratus, pp. of arbitrari, from arbiter (see arbiter). Meaning "settlement of a dispute by a third party" is from 1630s.
arbitrage
late 15c., from Fr. arbitrage, from arbitrer "to arbitrate, judge," from L.L. arbitrari, from L. arbiter (see arbiter).
It may also be the case that someone who is "sent" somewhere by another can be called an agent, which if the sense of acting at another's discretion is emphasized can come to mean someone who works for someone else.
That last bit is speculation since I'm not even sure that "arbeiter" in German has Latin roots.
Also, for those who just have to know, "arbeit" is the German cognate word for the Czek word for "worker", which is "robot", from which we get Robbie the Robot and other robots of science fiction.
Finally, the Russian word for worker is "rubot" with a long "o" and the accent on the second syllable.
I had to share that with someone and Penner is gone from the office.
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And we're all glad you did. No, really. Be sure to inform Penner when he gets back. Why should we have all the fun?
I'm sure that Penner will be pleased that he missed my discussion of the arbitrary-arbeiter connection.
He didn't seem real interested in my description of how Hitler positioned the NSDAP in a strategically unoccupied niche between the volkish parties and the Catholic Center Party in the period before the 1925 "Beerhall Putsch."
Go ahead and mock me, you philistines. Someday this will be worth much glory on Jeopardy.
Gosh, Peter, I am a bit of a nerd myself, but you really win the prize.
Yes, I'm really quite proud of this particular post.
>>That last bit is speculation since I'm not even sure that "arbeiter" in German has Latin roots.<<
It doesn't. According to de.wiktionary.org it's Gothic, through Old High German and Middle High German, meaning "difficulty", "hardship" or "suffering".
>>It doesn't. According to de.wikidictionary.org it's Gothic through Old High German and Middle high German, meaning "difficulty", hardship or "suffering".<<
....Which if true, is interesting to me because the word for "to work" in French is Travaillez..which, it is easy to see is related to the word "to travail..."
Interesting and thanks.
So, then, what's the etymological origin of "work"? Is it also suffer or travail?
And how weird is it that the etymological meaning of the German word for work smacks of the story of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden?
The etymological meaning of work seems to relate to the word toil, travail and wrought which directly points to the word, werk which is Middle English. My dictionaries are meant to uncovor this but I had to make my own leap towards "wrought" to then arrive at werk. The definitions after work are so lengthy that they do not supply an adequate uncovering of word origin for me. The synonym was listed as labor, toil, dudgery and travail. These are used to describe the exertion of energy to varying degrees.
Perhaps If we look further back toward the making of tools we will sense from what activity that word hails. As for arbeit, I wonder if it is a later word. It seems to refer to the act of going out to judge and make decisions.
Regarding the Garden of Eden: Man was told he would make his living from working the ground and woman was told she would suffer pain in childbirth. Both denote energy and both denote some toil. One can hardly ignore that a woman is said to travail while giving birth.
My uneducated guess is that arbeiter is a word that came later.
Furthermore, If you look at a "map" or better yet "tree" of how the Indo European languages are related, you will see that The German languages are not on the same branch as the languages of Latin origin.
"So, then, what's the etymological origin of "work"? Is it also suffer or travail?"
I would think the origin should, in fact, fall within your definition, Peter. After all, aren't we obligated to 'toil' because of Adam's fall?
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