An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Dusel

by Friedrich Kluge

Dusel, masculine, ‘dizziness,’ simply Modern High German, from Low German dusel, ‘giddiness’; a genuine High German word would have had an initial t, as Old High German tusig, ‘foolish,’ shows; the latter corresponds to Anglo-Saxon dysig, ‘foolish,’ English dizzy. To the root dus (dhus) contained in this class, belong Thor, thöricht, with the genuine High German t initially. A different gradation of the same root dus, from Aryan dhus, appears in Anglo-Saxon dwœ̂s, Dutch dwaas, ‘foolish.’