An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Kiste

by Friedrich Kluge

Kiste, feminine, ‘box,’ from Middle High German kiste, Old High German chista, feminine, ‘box, chest’; compare Dutch kist, Anglo-Saxon čest, čîste, English chest, Old Icelandic kista, ‘box.’ In Gothic a cognate term is wanting. The assumption that the Teutonic languages borrowed Latin cista (Greek κίστη) at a very early period, at any rate long before the change of the initial c of cista into tz, presents no greater difficulty than in the case of Arche; compare Korb, Koffer, and Sack. Hence between Kasten and Kiste there is no etymological connection; the first has no cognate term in Latin.