German
Etymology
From Middle High German sache, from Old High German sahha, from Proto-West Germanic *saku, from Proto-Germanic *sakō.
Cognate with Bavarian Såch, Yiddish זאַך (zakh), German Low German Sake, Low German Sake, Dutch zaak, Afrikaans saak, English sake, Danish sag, Swedish sak.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈzaxə/, [ˈzäχə] (Standard)
- IPA(key): /ˈsaχɛ/ (Austria)
- Rhymes: -aχə
- Hyphenation: Sa‧che
Audio (Germany (Berlin)): (file)
Noun
Sache f (genitive Sache, plural Sachen, diminutive Sächlein n or Sächelchen n)
- matter, affair, case, question, issue
- beschlossene Sache ― done deal
- Die Polizei untersuchte die Sache ohne Ergebnis.
- The police investigated the matter with no result.
- thing, object
- Da ist noch eine Sache.
- There's one more thing (for me to say).
- (law) thing, piece of property
- bewegliche Sache ― movable property
- unbewegliche Sache ― immovable property
- Sachen im Sinne des Gesetzes sind nur körperliche Gegenstände.[1]
- Only corporeal objects are things as defined by law.
- cause, action
- 1845, Max Stirner, Der Einzige und sein Eigentum [The Unique and His Property], page 8; English translation based on Steven T. Byington, transl., The Ego and Its Own, 1907, page 6:
- Fort denn mit jeder Sache, die nicht ganz und gar Meine Sache ist! Ihr meint, Meine Sache müsse wenigstens die „gute Sache“ sein? Was gut, was böse! Ich bin ja selber Meine Sache, und Ich bin weder gut noch böse. Beides hat für Mich keinen Sinn.
Das Göttliche ist Gottes Sache, das Menschliche Sache „des Menschen“. Meine Sache ist weder das Göttliche noch das Menschliche, ist nicht das Wahre, Gute, Rechte, Freie usw., sondern allein das Meinige, und sie ist keine allgemeine, sondern ist – einzig, wie Ich einzig bin.
Mir geht nichts über Mich!- Away, then, with every cause that is not altogether my cause! You think at least the "good cause" must be my cause? What's good, what's bad? Why, I myself am my cause, and I am neither good nor bad. Neither has meaning for me.
The divine is God's cause; the human, human's. My cause is neither the divine nor the human, not the true, good, just, free, etc., but solely what is mine, and it is not a general one, but is — unique, as I am unique.
Nothing is more to me than myself!
- Away, then, with every cause that is not altogether my cause! You think at least the "good cause" must be my cause? What's good, what's bad? Why, I myself am my cause, and I am neither good nor bad. Neither has meaning for me.
- subject, matter, business
- Das ist Privatsache.
- That's a private matter.
- 1960, Marie Luise Kaschnitz, Schneeschmelze:
- »Das tut nichts zur Sache«, sagte die Frau.
- "That's got nothing to do with it," said the woman.
- (chiefly in the plural, colloquial) kilometres per hour
- Er raste mit hundert Sachen um die Ecke.
- He raced around the corner at 100 per.
Declension
Declension of Sache [feminine]
Derived terms
- abgekartete Sache (“put-up affair”)
- Ansichtssache (“matter of opinion”)
- beschlossene Sache (“done deal”)
- Gewöhnungssache (“matter of accustomization”)
- Hauptsache (“main thing”)
- Nebensache (“minor matter, minor point”)
- Privatsache (“private matter, private affair”)
- Sachbegriff (“subject heading”)
- Sachbuch (“non-fiction (book)”)
- sachdienlich (“pertinent, relevant, helpful”)
- sachlich (“objective”)
- sächlich (“neuter”)
- Tatsache (“fact”)
- Verschlusssache (“classified information”)
Descendants
See also
References
Further reading
- “Sache”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache[1] (in German)
- “Sache” in Duden online
- “Sache” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
- Friedrich Kluge (1883), “Sache”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891
Anagrams
Hunsrik
Pronunciation
Noun
Sache f
Pennsylvania German
Noun
Sache