An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Silber

by Friedrich Kluge

Silber, neuter, ‘silver,’ from the equivalent Middle High German silber, Old High German silbar, earlier silabar, neuter; a common Teutonic word with corresponding forms; compare Gothic silubr, Anglo-Saxon seolofer, seolfor, English silver, Dutch zilver, Old Saxon silaƀar. Tins primitively Teutonic term is pre-historically connected (compare Gold) with the equivalent Slavonic cognates, Old Slovenian sĭrebro, Lithuanian sidabras. The implied *siloƀro- is certainly not an Aryan word; perhaps the Teutons adopted it in their migration from a non-Aryan tribe and transmitted it to the Slavs. The Latin-Greek term argentum, ἄργυρος, seems, like the equivalent Sanscrit rajatá (in the Vedas silver is unknown), to point to a primitively Aryan term of which Teutonic has retained no trace. Another non-Aryan word of prehistoric Teutonic is Hanf.