Friedhof

German

Alternative forms

• Freithof (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle High German vrīthof, from Old High German frīthof, derived from frīten (“to enclose”) + hof (“yard”). In Early Modern German, the word came to be associated with distantly related Frieden (“peace”), probably at first through interaction of diphthongising and non-diphthongising dialects, but then leading to semantic remotivation as “place of final peace”. Cognate with archaic Dutch vrijthof.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʁiːtˌhoːf/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

Friedhof m (strong, genitive Friedhofes or Friedhofs, plural Friedhöfe)

1. cemetery, graveyard

   Synonym: (less common) Kirchhof

Declension

Declension of Friedhof [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Friedhof	die	Friedhöfe
genitive	eines	des	Friedhofes, Friedhofs	der	Friedhöfe
dative	einem	dem	Friedhof, Friedhofe1	den	Friedhöfen
accusative	einen	den	Friedhof	die	Friedhöfe

¹Now rare, see notes.

Related terms

• Frieden m
• Friedhofsgärtner m (“cemetery gardner”)
• Friedhofskapelle f (“cemetery chapel”)
• Hof m

Further reading

• “Friedhof” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Friedhof” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Friedhof” in Duden online
• Friedhof on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “Friedhof”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891