German

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Etymology

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From Middle High German zern, zeren, from Old High German zeren, from Proto-Germanic *tarjaną, partly merged in Middle High German with related Old High German zeran, from Proto-Germanic *teraną. Cognate with Dutch teren and, through *teraną, with English tear (rip, rend).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈtseːrən/, [ˈt͡seːʁən], [ˈt͡seː.ɐn], [t͡seːɐ̯n], [t͡sɛɐ̯n]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Audio (Austria):(file)
  • Hyphenation: zeh‧ren
  • Homophone: zerren (some speakers)

Verb

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zehren (weak, third-person singular present zehrt, past tense zehrte, past participle gezehrt, auxiliary haben)

  1. to live on, to feed on [with von (+ dative) ‘something’]
  2. to undermine, to wear out [with an (+ dative) ‘someone/something’]

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • zehren” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • zehren” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • zehren” in Duden online
  • zehren” in OpenThesaurus.de