An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Zwirn

by Friedrich Kluge

Zwirn, masculine, ‘thread, twine, twisted yarn,’ from Middle High German zwirn, masculine, ‘double thread’; like Anglo-Saxon twîn, English twine, Dutch twijn (Danish tvinde, ‘twine wheel’), it points to a base twizna-. A Teutonic root twis appears also by a different derivation in English twist. —