beschweren
German
Etymology
From Middle High German beswæren (“to afflict, to depress, to annoy”), a merger from Old High German biswāren (“to depress, to burden”) (10th c.), from Proto-West Germanic *biswârijan; and Old High German biswārōn (“to burden”) (10th c.), from Proto-West Germanic *biswārōn. Related to swāren (“heavy”) (8th c.) whence schwer. The reflexive sense developed later in the 14th century from "to burden oneself", "to fret" to "to complain about something worrisome, burdensome".[1] Cognate with Dutch bezwaren.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bəˈʃveːʁən/
Audio: (file) - Hyphenation: be‧schwe‧ren
- Rhymes: -eːʀən
Verb
beschweren (weak, third-person singular present beschwert, past tense beschwerte, past participle beschwert, auxiliary haben)
- (transitive) to weight, to weight down
- (reflexive) to complain [with über (+ accusative) ‘about someone/something’ or a subordinate clause]
- Synonym: beklagen
Conjugation
Conjugation of beschweren (weak, auxiliary haben)
| infinitive | beschweren | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present participle | beschwerend | ||||
| past participle | beschwert | ||||
| auxiliary | haben | ||||
| indicative | subjunctive | ||||
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| present | ich beschwere | wir beschweren | i | ich beschwere | wir beschweren |
| du beschwerst | ihr beschwert | du beschwerest | ihr beschweret | ||
| er beschwert | sie beschweren | er beschwere | sie beschweren | ||
| preterite | ich beschwerte | wir beschwerten | ii | ich beschwerte1 | wir beschwerten1 |
| du beschwertest | ihr beschwertet | du beschwertest1 | ihr beschwertet1 | ||
| er beschwerte | sie beschwerten | er beschwerte1 | sie beschwerten1 | ||
| imperative | beschwer (du) beschwere (du) |
beschwert (ihr) | |||
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.
Composed forms of beschweren (weak, auxiliary haben)
Derived terms
- Beschweren, Beschwerung, Beschwerde
- beschwerend, beschwert
Related terms
References
- ^ Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “beschweren”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN
Further reading
- “beschweren” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “beschweren” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
- “beschweren” in Duden online
- “beschweren” in OpenThesaurus.de