An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Anke

by Friedrich Kluge

Anke, masculine ‘butter,’ an Alemannian word, from Middle High German anke, Old High German ancho, ‘butter’; the genuine German term for the borrowed word Butter, for which, in the Old High German period, anc-smëro or chuo-smëro, literally ‘cow-fat’ (see Schmeer), might also be used. Gothic *agqa for Old High German ancho is not recorded. It is certainly allied primitively to the Indian root añj, ‘to anoint, besmear,’ and to Latin unguo, ‘to anoint’; compare Sanscrit âjya ‘butter-offering,’ Old Irish imb (from imben-), ‘butter.’