The Origin of the German Word Ehre ‘Honor‘

Abstract

Special interest in the German word Ehre was aroused forty years ago when Gustav Ehrismann dealt with Middle High German ere as one of the three cardinal virtues of the age of chivalry (“Die Grundlagen des ritterlichen Tugendsystems,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Alter-tum, LVI, 1919, 137–216). Since then this word has been repeatedly discussed by scholars, e.g., by E. R. Curtius (who opposed Ehrismann's views), Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstädt (in her detailed semantic study of the word in Old High German), Friedrich Maurer (in his investigations of the word in Middle High German), Eduard Neumann, and others. The same topic has also been dealt with in several dissertations, e.g., by Hildegard Emmel and by Frederik Mos-selmann.“ Recently monographs by Hans Reiner and by George Fenwick Jones have dealt with the concept of honor.

Hartmann's <i>Armer Heinrich</i>: The Clasical Mediaeval Dilemma

“…The origin of M. H. G. ere (often plural) is uncertain. One scholar suggested the name of an Etruscan deity as the concrete starting-point, 4 and the occasional use of era in some O.H.G. glosses for the male sex organ points to some pagan fertility cult where awe, respect, veneration are appropriate.5 Friedrich Maurer tried to demonstrate that religious connotations were not present from the beginning, that there was a development from an earlier concrete, external connotation for O.H.G.…”