An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Eiter

by Friedrich Kluge

Eiter, neuter, ‘pus, matter, suppuration,’ from Middle High German eiter, Old High German eitar (eittar), neuter, ‘poison’ (especially animal poison); Gothic *aitra- is wanting; an old tr remains unchanged in High German (see treu, zittern). Compare Middle Low German and Dutch etter, Anglo-Saxon âttor, attor, English atter (‘pus, poison’), Old Icelandic eitr, neuter. Also a variant without the suffix r (Gothic *aita-); compare Old High German and Middle High German eiȥ (Alemannian eisse, Bavarian aiss), masculine, ‘abscess, ulcer,’ with a normal permutation of t to ȥȥ. The Teutonic root ait, ‘poisonous ulcer,’ has been rightly connected with the Greek οἶδος, neuter, οἶδμα, neuter, ‘swelling,’ οἰδάω, ‘to swell’; hence the root is Aryan oid.