An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Bauch

by Friedrich Kluge

Bauch, masculine, ‘belly, bulge,’ from the equivalent Middle High German bûch, Old High German bûh (hh), masculine; the corresponding Anglo-Saxon bûc (English dialectic buck, ‘the inner part of a carriage’) has the same meaning; Old Icelandic búkr, ‘body, waist.’ It is uncertain whether Bauch belongs to the Sanscrit root bhuj (compare Latin fungor), ‘to take food,’ or to Sanscrit bhuj, ‘to bend’ (Bauch, literally ‘the flexible part’), Perhaps it is connected with Gr φύσκα (for φυγσκα?), ‘stomach, blister’?. It is certainly not akin to Anglo-Saxon bodig, English body, Old High German botah, ‘body,’ nor is it allied to Greek φαγεῖν, ‘to eat’ (Sanscrit bhaj, ‘to enjoy, partake of’).