Jakob Grimm

1 7.1

Older of two Grimm brothers who collected German fairy tales and studied how languages change

proper noun
/ˈjɑːkɒb ɡrɪm/

: Jakob Grimm

Grimm's law, named after Jakob Grimm, describes consonant shifts in Germanic languages.

Examples

Grimm's law, named after Jakob Grimm, describes consonant shifts in Germanic languages.
Jakob Grimm was instrumental in collecting and publishing traditional German fairy tales with his brother.
Many linguists credit Jakob Grimm for his pioneering work in comparative philology.
The famous fairy tales were collected by Jakob Grimm.
Jakob Grimm was born in 1785.
Jakob Grimm was instrumental in collecting and publishing traditional German fairy tales with his brother.
Many linguists credit Jakob Grimm for his pioneering work in comparative philology.

Synonyms

Jacob Grimm

vsJakob Grimm

1 7.6

A German writer who collected fairy tales and described sound changes in languages like German and English

retains the original German spelling instead of the alternate English form

Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm

vsJakob Grimm

8.2

A German scholar who collected folk tales and studied how language sounds change

uses a shorter common name form instead of the full formal name

Surface Forms

Jakob Grimm main

Morphology

Jakob + Grimm

This is a proper name rather than a compositional phrase: knowing the constituents 'Jakob' and 'Grimm' only signals a person’s name but does not allow a learner to infer the biographical facts (collector of fairy tales; formulater of Grimm's law). Proper names are idiosyncratic and language-specific, so the specific meaning is not derivable from the parts.

Etymology

Jakob Grimm was the older of the Grimm brothers who went around collecting old 'fairy tales' with his brother and writing them down. He also noticed regular 'sound changes' in languages, so today his name is used for famous story collections and for Grimm's law, the rule about how sounds change.