"Zu Tode gekocht" or "Zu Tod gekocht"

[final jasper]

I'm watching a video titled "Zu Tode gekocht - Eine der brutalsten Strafen der Geschichte" and I couldn't understand why the e was added to the word Tod so I would be happy for an answer 🙂

[worthy ledge]

fixed phrase. In the past, masculine and neutral nouns in Dative received an -e ending. This has disappeared for the most part, but remains in some sayings (zu Hause, im Sinne von.., etc)

[final jasper]

awesome thx, while we're at it in the video he says "kochen bei lebendigem Leib" and I don't understand why the "em" ending and not "en"

[worthy ledge]

das Leib --> dem Leib (dative)
adjective ending for neutral dative case without an article is -em

[final jasper]

without an article meaning it uses neither "the" nor "a"?

[worthy ledge]

exactly

[paper swallow]

der Leib!

[worthy ledge]

thanks, I am stupid 😭

[exotic tinsel]

note that this is still common in certain regions of germany. i live in east central germany and here this is very common. Dativ-e is used in masculine and neuter nouns ending on a consonant, but not those ending on -er, -em, -en, or -el. monosyllabic words have a far higher chance to be declined that way, longer words often not, though still permissible. loanwords also have a significantly slimmer chance.

actually, if you read german books from the early 20th century, and beyond that 19th century and onwards, you’ll see this was an established literary tradition, even for writers who wouldn’t speak that way.

martin luther, key figure of protestantism, who was the first to translate the bible into german, also did that (maybe especially so by virtue of being round about from where i live, where this is commonplace). that might have spearheaded that tradition, as did his manner of expression in the bible in general.

there is a whole list of fixed expressions that usually are only permissable with the dative declension -e. whenever you encounter one, look it up to check if it is one, and memorize it. it’s likely one of them.

also note that weak masculine nouns take -en in dative case.

[celest pecan]

in the spirit of this post: "bei lebendigem Leibe"

[stray inlet]

Do you mean in Dialekt, or also when people in east central Germany speak Hochdeutsch?

[exotic tinsel]

depends, but generally dialectally

though it's a mannerism that many may have internalized so that they also do it in standard german (which is neither wrong nor weird)