An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Eingeweide

by Friedrich Kluge

Eingeweide, neuter, ‘entrails, bowels, intestines,’ from Middle High German ĭngeweide (Anglo-Saxon innoþ from *inwâþ), neuter, ‘bowels,’ for which geweide, neuter, also meaning ‘food,’ chiefly occurs; Modern High German ein- for Modern High German ĭn, ‘within, inside’; Old High German weida, ‘food, pasture.’ Therefore Eingeweide must have meant literally ‘the food that has been eaten,’ and afterwards ‘the organs at work in digesting it’; compare also ausweiden, ‘to disembowel.’ See Weide. —