An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Stier

by Friedrich Kluge

Stier, masculine, ‘bull,’ from the equivalent Middle High German stier, Old High German stior; a common Teutonic term; compare Gothic stiur, Anglo-Saxon steór, English steer, Dutch stier. The remarkable variant Old Icelandic þjórr, Danish tyr, Swedish tjur, points to pre-Teutonic teuro- and steuro-; to this Old Slovenian turŭ, ‘bull,’ Zend staora, ‘draught cattle,’ and the Sanscrit adjective sthûra, ‘great, mighty’ (Old Icelandic stórr, Old High German stûri), are perhaps allied. Greek ταῦρος (whence Latin taurus) is based, as is indicated by Old Irish tarb, on a primitive form tarwos.