An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Pech

by Friedrich Kluge

Pech, neuter, from the equivalent Middle High German pëch, bëch (compare Papst), Old High German pëh, bëh, neuter, ‘pitch’; Middle High German pfich (very rare), from Old High German *pfih, unless it is a phonetic transcription of the Latin or Low German word. It corresponds to Old Saxon pik, neuter, Dutch pik, pek, Anglo-Saxon pič, neuter, English pitch; Old Icelandic bik. The Teutonic cognates are based on a Latin-Romance word; Latin picem, accusative of pix (with regard to the oblique case as the base compare Kreuz). Compared with Kreuz from crŭcem, the preservation of the guttural as k and of the vowel quantity in the stem is an important element in the history of the word. Latin pĭcem was naturalized at a much earlier period in German than crŭcem, probably in the 7th century. Compare further Italian pece, French poix, ‘pitch,’ from Latin picem (nominative pix).