An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Acker

by Friedrich Kluge

Acker, masculine, ‘field, arable land,’ from the equivalent Middle High German acker, Old High German acchar (ahhar), masculine; a common Teutonic and Old Aryan word corresponding to Gothic akrs, masculine, Anglo-Saxon œcer, English acre (aker), Dutch akker, Old Saxon akkar. Teutonic *akra-z, masculine, from pre-Teutonic agro-s; compare Sanscrit ájra-s, masculine, ‘pasture-ground, plain, common,’ Greek ἀγρός, Latin ager (stem agro-), ‘field.’ It is certainly connected with the Indian root aj, ‘to drive' (compare Trift, allied to treiben), Latin ago, Greek ἄγω, to which in Old Icelandic aka, ‘to drive,’ was allied. “Thus âjra- signifies in the widest sense ‘field and common,’ originally as ‘pasture-land,’ the greatest part of which, when tillage supplanted the rearing of cattle, was used for crops.” The transition in meaning was, probably, completed on the migration of the Western Aryans to Europe; moreover, the root ar, ‘to plough, till,’ is West Aryan; compare Greek ἀρόω, Latin arare, Gothic arjan, Old High German erian, Old Bulgarian orati, ‘to plough.’ See Art.