Numbly was originally a jokey catchword from the student’s language, which has spread since the nineteenth century in the language of communication and writing. The word is composed of the same meaningless words, and yet together, and for a long time it was only a colloquial joke. Due to the high distribution of the word novelty, it sooner or later entered various dictionaries of the German language and is used by numerous speakers, which is often referred to as the “real” word of the language of communication.
The term is a keyword. A mating word is the merging of two words that overlap in the word. At the same time, nothing is destroyed, yet still one to the other, as a result of which nothing is produced. This in this case has the same meaning as the words from which it is formed. Another example is Denglish, in which German and English merge.
The German linguistic scientist Heinz Küpper, in his Illustrated Lexicon of the German Language of Intercourse, points out that the term probably comes from the Berlin and originated around the 1870s. According to our research, the word can already be found in the literature as early as 1849, although earlier use can certainly not be ruled out. That’s what Friedrich Gerstäcker’s Gold says. A Californian life picture from the year 1849 of 1859:
Hands in his pockets, some of the Yankee storekeepers, the dealer, had just strolled down the street, exactly where the two wild girls with the horses were. Thanks to their understanding, they had learned so much from the Indian language that Walle-Walle was the greeting of the Indians. This “ramp” was little more than the broken handle of a pot in her hands, because every conversation started was cut off again. The long, lanky fellows approached the two beauties with great confidence, and with a sense of their worth as whites and Americans, and even masters of the land, and gave their greetings. (Friedrich Gerstäcker: Gold! A Californian life picture from 1849, chapter 25)
The above excerpt shows that it must be used before Küppers assumption. However, the term did not enter into the landscape of the dictionaries until the beginning of the 20th century. Thus, the city dictionary The Right Berliner records the entry nothingdestotrotz since 1925, whereby it is from 1935 also in the language Brockhaus, where it is characterized with the adjectives jokingly and colloquially. In the Duden is nothingdestrotz by the way since the 1950er years to be found.
Since then the triumphal procession of the one-time joke has been unbroken. In the meantime, it is found in all (verified) German language dictionaries, and is also used in serious publications as a synonym for nonetheless or even nothing else. second hand. Thus, the one-time language joke illustrates that language is changeable and new words can arise (see neologism).
Short overview: The most important overview
The conjunctual adverb, which was nothing more than a proverbial, was originally a joke, which was most probably created in student circles. In dictionaries, the term has been used since the beginning of the 20th century, although it can be found in various places in the literature in the mid-nineteenth century.
The word is a password. Keywords are fusions of at least two words. Here, individual components of these words are overlapped. The word nothingdestotrotz is made up of nothing more indifferent and yet together.
Note: The word is considered to be difficult to write, since many writers are unsure, whether it is written “nothingdestotrotz” or “nonetheless”. The problem lies here in the original joking character of the word, which makes a derivation impossible.