eisern
Appearance
German
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Middle High German īseren, īserīn, from Old High German īsarnīn. Equivalent to Eiser (“iron”), older variant of Eisen + -en. Now reanalysable as Eisen (“iron”) + -ern, but historically eisern is itself one of the words that contributed to the development of this extended suffix -ern (see there).
Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]eisern (strong nominative masculine singular eiserner, comparative (rare) eiserner, superlative am eisernsten)
- iron, ironclad, made of iron
- (figurative) staunch, unyielding
Usage notes
[edit]- As usual, Modern German prefers compound nouns to the adjective construction, e.g. rather Eisenstange than eiserne Stange (“iron rod”). Therefore the figurative use is now predominant.
Declension
[edit]Positive forms of eisern
number & gender | singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | feminine | neuter | |||
predicative | er ist eisern | sie ist eisern | es ist eisern | sie sind eisern | |
strong declension (without article) |
nominative | eiserner | eiserne | eisernes | eiserne |
genitive | eisernen | eiserner | eisernen | eiserner | |
dative | eisernem | eiserner | eisernem | eisernen | |
accusative | eisernen | eiserne | eisernes | eiserne | |
weak declension (with definite article) |
nominative | der eiserne | die eiserne | das eiserne | die eisernen |
genitive | des eisernen | der eisernen | des eisernen | der eisernen | |
dative | dem eisernen | der eisernen | dem eisernen | den eisernen | |
accusative | den eisernen | die eiserne | das eiserne | die eisernen | |
mixed declension (with indefinite article) |
nominative | ein eiserner | eine eiserne | ein eisernes | (keine) eisernen |
genitive | eines eisernen | einer eisernen | eines eisernen | (keiner) eisernen | |
dative | einem eisernen | einer eisernen | einem eisernen | (keinen) eisernen | |
accusative | einen eisernen | eine eiserne | ein eisernes | (keine) eisernen |
Comparative forms of eisern
1Rare.
Superlative forms of eisern
Derived terms
[edit]See also
[edit]Further reading
[edit]Categories:
- German terms inherited from Middle High German
- German terms derived from Middle High German
- German terms inherited from Old High German
- German terms derived from Old High German
- German terms suffixed with -en
- German terms suffixed with -ern
- German 2-syllable words
- German terms with IPA pronunciation
- German terms with audio pronunciation
- German lemmas
- German adjectives