Wörter und Sachenn.
/ˌvəːtə ʊnt ˈzaxən/, U.S. /ˌvərdər ʊnt ˈzækən/ Linguistics.
A method of research in which the etymology of words and their distribution across dialects is studied in close association with the history and distribution of the things they refer to. Frequently attributive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > linguistic geography or dialectology > specific
Wörter und Sachen1914
social dialectology1960
1914 Amer. Jrnl. Philol. 35 115 Professor Schuchardt is well known as a leader in the movement for the conjoint study of Wörter und Sachen, which seeks to derive information about the history of words from the history of the things they designate.
1929 Mod. Lang. Rev. 24 235 A valuable ‘Wörter und Sachen’ study..describing, pictorially as well as verbally, the foundation and contents of Mistral's Provençal Museum in Arles.
1937 J. Orr tr. I. Iordan Introd. Romance Linguistics i. 73 Their researchers imply the investigation of a variety of cultural influences and exchanges which entitles them to be associated..with the Wörter und Sachen movement.
1957 Language 33 54 The twin methods of ‘Wörter-und-Sachen’ and ‘Sachen-und-Wörter’, devised half a century ago by..Meringer and Schuchardt..require no formal introduction at this late date.
1978 Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 7 508 Wörter und Sachen technique has been used extensively in the search for the homeland of Indo-European.
2010 J. H. Hill in J. E. Staller et al. Histories of Maize in Mesoamerica (2016) xix. 237/1 The Wörter-und-Sachen method permits us to suggest that corn cobs were known to speakers of a proto-language.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2017; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1914