-heit

See also: heit

German

Alternative forms

-keit

Etymology

From Middle High German -heit, from Old High German -heit, and ultimately from *haiduz (“personality, character, manner, way”).^[1] Cognate with Dutch -heid, English -hood, Danish -hed.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /-ˌhaɪ̯t/, [ˌhaɪ̯t]
Audio (file)

Suffix

-heit f (plural -heiten)

Converts an adjective into a noun and usually denotes an abstract quality of the adjectival root. It is often equivalent to the English suffixes -ty and -ness:
schön (“beautiful”) + ‎-heit → ‎Schönheit (“beauty”)

neu (“new”) + ‎-heit → ‎Neuheit (“novelty”)
Converts concrete nouns into abstract nouns:
Kind (“child”) + ‎-heit → ‎Kindheit (“childhood”)

Christ (“Christian”) + ‎-heit → ‎Christenheit (“Christendom”)

Usage notes

While -heit is the normal form of this suffix, it becomes -keit after certain adjectival suffixes. These are -bar, -ig, -isch, -lich, -sam. For example: nützlich (“useful”) + ‎-heit → ‎Nützlichkeit (“utility”).
Adjectives ending in -el and -er behave irregularly: eitel (“vain”) + ‎-heit → ‎Eitelkeit (“vanity”); but: dunkel (“dark”) + ‎-heit → ‎Dunkelheit (“darkness”).
Sometimes -ig- is added to the adjective and the suffix thus becomes -keit: müde (“tired”) + ‎-heit → ‎Müdigkeit (“tiredness”). This is the general rule with adjectives in -haft and -los: fehlerhaft (“faulty”) + ‎-heit → ‎Fehlerhaftigkeit (“faultiness”).

Derived terms

► <a class='CategoryTreeLabel CategoryTreeLabelNs14 CategoryTreeLabelCategory' href='/wiki/Category:German_words_suffixed_with_-heit'>German words suffixed with -heit</a>

References

↑ Kluge, Friedrich (1989), “-heit”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological dictionary of the German language] (in German), 22nd edition, →ISBN.