Kirchhof

German

Etymology

From Middle High German kirchhof (“land around a church”). Analyzable as Kirche (“church”) +‎ Hof (“yard”). The semantic development is determined by Middle Low German kerkhof, which came to mean “graveyard” because graveyards have traditionally tended to be established around churches. Compare the same in Dutch kerkhof (“graveyard”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɪʁçˌhoːf/

• Audio

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Noun

Kirchhof m (strong, genitive Kirchhofes or Kirchhofs, plural Kirchhöfe)

1. (dated, regional, Northern Germany) graveyard

   Synonym: Friedhof

Declension

Declension of Kirchhof [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Kirchhof	die	Kirchhöfe
genitive	eines	des	Kirchhofes, Kirchhofs	der	Kirchhöfe
dative	einem	dem	Kirchhof, Kirchhofe1	den	Kirchhöfen
accusative	einen	den	Kirchhof	die	Kirchhöfe

¹Now rare, see notes.

Further reading

• “Kirchhof” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Kirchhof” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Kirchhof” in Duden online
• Kirchhof on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de