An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Zimmer

by Friedrich Kluge

Zimmer, neuter, ‘room, chamber,’ from Middle High German zimber, Old High German zimbar, neuter, ‘timber, wooden building, dwelling, room'; corresponding to Old Saxon timbar, Dutch timmer, ‘room,’ Anglo-Saxon timber, English timber, Old Icelandic timbr. To these are allied Gothic timrjan, ‘to build up' Old High German and Middle High German zimberen, Modern High German zimmern, ‘to build.’ The primary meaning of the substantive was certainly ‘wood for building'; it is primitively allied to Latin domus, Greek δόμος, Sanscrit dama, Old Slovenian domŭ, ‘house' (literally ‘building of wood'); and also to the root verb Greek δέμω, ‘to build' (δέμας, ‘bodily frame').