Etymograph

English

Sturm und Drang

Sturm und Drang comes from German Sturm und Drang.

  1. Germanc. 1650–presentSturm und Drang
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1945same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Germanc. 1650–presentSturm und Drang
  2. Englishearliest quotation 1945same form

Earliest quotation: 1945, Bennet Cerf, New York: “After six months of sturm and drang she had…”

The story

Borrowed from German Sturm und Drang with the same figurative meaning, from Sturm (‘storm’) + und (‘and’) + Drang (‘pressure, stress; urge, impulse, longing’). The phrase is the title of the play Sturm und Drang (1776) by German dramatist Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger (1752–1831). The fact that the phrase is often italicized suggests it has not been fully assimilated into English.

Every English word from German Sturm und Drang

Today it means

noun A proto-Romantic movement in German literature and music which occurred from the late 1760s to the early 1780s, emphasizing individual subjectivity and the free expression of emotions.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / German Sturm und Drang / Sturm und Drang

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