Dorf

See also: dorf

German

Etymology

From Middle High German dorf, from Old High German dorf, thorph, from Proto-Germanic *þurpą. Doublet of Truppe (English troop). Cognate with Old Dutch thorp (modern Dutch dorp), Old Saxon thorp, Old English þorp (archaic English thorp).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɔrf/, [dɔʁf], [dɔrf], [dɔɐ̯f], [dɔːf]
• In parts of western Germany, the /f/ is commonly voiced to /v/ in derivatives from placenames (like Düsseldorfer, düsseldorfisch), but not in forms of the common noun.

• audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔʁf

Noun

Dorf n (genitive Dorfes or Dorfs, plural Dörfer, diminutive Dörfchen n or Dörflein n)

1. village (rural habitation of size between a hamlet and a town)
   • 1903, Fanny zu Reventlow, Ellen Olestjerne, in Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow: Gesammelte Werke, Albert Langen, page 551:

     Vor ihnen lag das Dorf mit seinen Strohdächern und dem niedrigen, stumpfen Kirchturm.

     In front of them was the village with its thatched roofs and the small, flat church steeple.

2. (figurative) backwater (remote place; somewhere that remains unaffected by new events, progresses, ideas, etc.)

Derived terms

Derived terms

• böhmische Dörfer
• Bundesdorf
• Dorfanger
• Dorffest
• Dorfmitte
• Dorfplatz
• Dorftratsch
• Dorfältester
• dörflich
• die Kirche im Dorf lassen
• Kirchendorf
• Kuhdorf

• Runddorf
• Rundlingsdorf (= Rundling)
• Straßendorf
• über die Dörfer

See also

• Gemeinde f
• Kaff n
• Stadt f

Further reading

• “Dorf” in Duden online