-heit

See also: heit

German

Alternative forms

-keit

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /-haɪ̯t/, [haɪ̯t]
The suffix has secondary stress when it follows an unstressed syllable and often also when it precedes one. When it is entirely unstressed, the /h/ may be unpronounced in common speech.
Audio (Germany (Berlin)): (file)

Suffix

-heit f (genitive -heit, 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 -ness, -th, -ity, -dom:
‎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 unstressed -el, -er usually take -keit as well: ‎eitel (“vain”) + ‎-heit → ‎Eitelkeit (“vanity”), ‎mager (“meagre”) + ‎-heit → ‎Magerkeit (“meagreness”). However, there are a handful of exceptions, e.g. Dunkelheit (“darkness”), Sicherheit (“safety”).
Sometimes -ig- is added to the adjective and the suffix thus becomes -keit. This is the general rule with adjectives in -haft and -los: ‎fehlerhaft (“faulty”) + ‎-heit → ‎Fehlerhaftigkeit (“faultiness”). There is also a fairly large number of other adjectives that follow this pattern: ‎müde (“tired”) + ‎-heit → ‎Müdigkeit (“tiredness”). Two forms may exist for some adjectives, occasionally with a semantic distinction, e.g. Neuheit (“novelty”) versus Neuigkeit (“news”).

Declension

Declension of -heit [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	-heit	die	-heiten
genitive	einer	der	-heit	der	-heiten
dative	einer	der	-heit	den	-heiten
accusative	eine	die	-heit	die	-heiten

Derived terms

German terms suffixed with -heit

Creutzfeldt-Jakob-Krankheit

Gegenwartsbezogenheit

References

^ Kluge, Friedrich (1989), “-heit”, in Elmar Seebold, editor, Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache [Etymological Dictionary of the German Language] (in German), 22nd edition, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN.

Middle Dutch

Etymology

Inherited from Old Dutch -heit, from Proto-West Germanic *-haidu, from Proto-Germanic *haiduz.

Suffix

-heit f

-ness, -ity, -hood; forms nouns from adjectives, denoting the abstract quality of the adjective.

Inflection

Strong feminine noun
	singular	plural
nominative	-heit	-heide
accusative	-heit	-heide
genitive	-heit, -heide	-heide
dative	-heit, -heide	-heiden

Derived terms

Middle Dutch terms suffixed with -heit

Descendants

Dutch: -heid
- Afrikaans: -heid

Middle High German

Etymology

Inherited from Old High German -heit, from Proto-West Germanic *-haidu, from Proto-Germanic *haiduz.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (before 13^th CE) /hei̯t/

Suffix

-heit f

-ness, -ity, -hood; forms nouns from adjectives, denoting the abstract quality of the adjective.

Declension

Declension of -heit (strong feminine ending in a consonant)

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	diu	-heit	die	-heite
genitive	einer	dër	-heite, -heit	dër	-heite
dative	einer	dër	-heite, -heit	dën	-heiten
accusative	eine	die	-heit	die	-heite