Hello,
I appreciate if you explain the meaning of the said word in the following context:
“Do you want a name for this world? A solution for all its riddles? A light for you, too, you best-concealed, strongest, most intrepid, most midnightly men! – This world is the will to power, and nothing besides! And you yourselves are also this will to power, and nothing besides!” Nietzsche
Many thanks.
When I first saw your thread title I thought it was an adjective meaning “every midnight”. (Just like daily means “every day”).
But in the context you have quoted it, it obviously doesn’t mean that. I’ve never heard of the word before so I think it’s probably made-up. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean it has no meaning. Looking at the preceeding adjectives I would guess that the word is supposed to mean something like “ensconced” (hidden and protected). But I don’t know for sure. The juxtaposition with “a light for you” might mean that the author is having a bit of a laugh.
Do you have the original German?
Don’t care the the OP is banned, I liked the question.
According to Google, it’s from the Will to Power, page 550.
According to a thread I found, it’s likely a word made up by Nietzsche to refer to ignorant people, people who don’t have the light as he does.
That makes sense Midnightly = ‘most in the dark’ = most ignorant.
Although I too first interpreted it (in the title) as ‘occuring each night at midnight’.
In Norwegian, “Mørkemenn” - “Men of the darkness” is in the dictionary as “someone opposing enlightenment and freedom of thought”. Are there similar expressions in German? And even more important, what did Nietzsche write in the orginal?
Wille zur Macht – Wikipedia says “Mitternächtlichsten”
My German isn’t great, but “Mitternacht” is “midnight” and “-lich” is a suffix that turns a word into an adjective or adverb. The English suffix “-ly” (eg “lovely”, “deadly”) is derived from “-lich”, although in this case translating it as “-like” might seem more natural. “-sten” is a suffix used to turn a word into a superlative, like the English “-est”. So yeah, that could be translated literally as “midnightlyest”, “most midnightly”, or “most midnight-like”.
I think we have a few native German speakers on the Dope, so maybe they can say more about this.