räif
Luxembourgish
Etymology
Borrowed from German reif (“ripe, mature”). The word is not attested in any Luxembourgish dictionary before the LOD. While räif would indeed be the expected descendant of Old High German rīfi, from Proto-Germanic *rīpiz, the word is missing also in the neighbouring dialects of Moselle Franconian and originally in much of Rhine Franconian (in which latter there are local forms with the vowel of Middle High German ei instead of ī, which also attest to non-native origin). In the whole region, the inherited word for “ripe” is Middle High German zītec (literally “timely”).
The long diphthong äi (instead of ei) must have been chosen by analogy with words where Luxembourgish -äif- corresponds to German -eif-, most notably the homonym Räif (“rime, frost”), but also others like gräifen etc.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ʀæˑɪ̯f]
- Rhymes: -æːɪf
- Homophone: Räif
Adjective
räif (masculine räifen, neuter räift, comparative méi räif, superlative am räifsten)
- (of a person, behaviour) mature, having or expressing sufficient development
- Synonym: maturéiert
- (figurative) ripe, ready, fit for something
Declension
| singular | plural | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | neuter | |||
| predicative | hien ass räif | si ass räif | et ass räif | si si(nn) räif | |
| nominative / accusative |
attributive and/or after determiner | räifen | räif | räift | räif |
| independent without determiner | räifes | räifer | |||
| dative | after any declined word | räifen | räifer | räifen | räifen |
| as first declined word | räifem | räifem | |||
Derived terms
See also
- zeideg (“ripe”, of a fruit etc.)
Further reading
- räif in the Lëtzebuerger Online Dictionnaire