Lexeme Glück in German Dictionaries of the 16th — 19th Centuries: Lexicographic Representation and Interpretation of Its Conceptual Content

Abstract

The article discusses the concept “happiness” as represented and interpreted in lexicography. The aim of the study is to compare existing theories about the origin of the word Glück, to trace the development of its semantics from one generalized meaning to a set of meanings that reflects a gradual evolution of people’s ideas about happiness, and to identify ways of representing these ideas by lexicographic means. Using methods of historical-linguistic, compara-tive, etymological, definitional, and semantic analysis, the authors examine German dictionaries and lexicons published in the period from 1513 to 1888 and establish that in those four centuries the concept “happiness,” represented in the German vocabulary by the lexeme Glück, underwent significant transformation, as material and spiritual needs of people kept changing against the background of gradual humanization of their social life, which, in its turn, led to added complexity in the semantic structure of the lexeme Glück that embodies this concept. Descriptions of the lexeme Glück in dictionaries dating from the beginning of the 16th to mid-18th century are very concise due to the type of these dictionaries (nomenclators, translated dictionaries) and do not involve detailed comments on the full range of meanings that the lexeme had. The main elements of the semantic structure of the lexeme are ‘(temporary) well-being,’ ‘bliss,’ ‘luc ,’ and ‘fortune (fate)’ (glu c fall, glu c elig eit, wol tand, zeit-liche Wolfart). Analyzing interpretations of the lexeme Glück in the mid-18th — late 19th century dictionaries, the authors conclude that the semantic structure of the lexeme became more complicated due to philosophical rethinking of the concept and its integrated dissemination through dictionaries. The etymology of the word Glüc is still unclear. It is assumed that the word appeared in the 13th century and retained a neutral meaning until the end of the Middle High German period when a positive connotation began to prevail in the semantics of the word.