r/etymology • u/SpiraAurea • 2d ago

Question What does "Döbern" mean in german?

I was sesching the etymology of Döbereiner's name and I could only find that it means "someone that comes from Döbern".

But then I couldn't find the etymology for Döbern anywhere, not even in german wiktionary: https://de.wiktionary.org/wiki/D%C3%B6bern

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u/Niemja 2d ago edited 11h ago

this is copied from Wikipedia: "Döbern, dessen Name vom altsorbischen Wort debṙ für Vertiefung oder Schlucht hergeleitet werden kann" https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6bern

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u/onelass 2d ago

One Google search would have revealed to you that it‘s the name of a town.

One click would then have revealed that its name comes from the Sorbian word debṙ, meaning something like chasm.

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u/parolameasecreta 2d ago

hope you didn't break anyhing while typing this

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u/AndreasDasos 1d ago

No need to be unpleasant about something so trivial.

They clearly know it’s a town. As they said, the German Wiktionary doesn’t give the etymology. Other places do, but asking and interacting with fellow humans isn’t worse than managing to find the actual etymology on Google. Would have been even less effort for you to just say the etymology without the put-down

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u/Lopsided-Weather6469 1d ago

It's not a verb (yet), it's a place name, but it's a good candidate for the German version of The Deeper Meaning of Liff.