An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/elend

by Friedrich Kluge

elend, adjective, ‘wretched, pitiful, miserable, despicable,’ from Middle High German ęllende, adjective, ‘unhappy, woful, living in a foreign country, banished,’ Old High German ęli-lenti, ‘banished, living out of one's country, foreign, alien, captive’; corresponding to Old Saxon ęli-lendi, ‘alien, foreign.’ To this is allied the abstract Elend, neuter, from Middle High German ęllende, Old High German ęli-lenti, neuter, ‘banishment, foreign country,’ Middle High German also, ‘want, distress, misery,’ Old High German also, ‘captivity,’ Old Saxon ęlilendi, neuter, ‘foreign country.’ The primary meaning of the adjective is ‘living in, born in a foreign country’ (compare Elsaß, from early Middle Latin Alisatia, from Old High German Elisâȥȥo, literally ‘incola peregrinus,’ or ‘inhabitant of the other bank of the Rhine’). Gothic aljis, ‘another,’ is primitively cognate with Latin alius, Greek ἄλλος (for ἄλjος), Old Irish aile, ‘another’; compare the corresponding genitive Old High German and Anglo-Saxon ęlles, ‘otherwise,’ English else. The pronominal stem alja- was even in the Gothic period supplanted by anþara-, ‘another.’ Compare Recke.