An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Garten

by Friedrich Kluge

Garten, m., from the equiv. MidHG. garte, OHG. garto, m., ‘garden’; corresponding to OSax. gardo, OFris. garda, m., ‘garden’; Goth. garda, m., ‘stable.’ Akin to the strong nouns — Goth. gards, m., ‘court, house, family’; OIc. garðr, m., ‘enclosure, hedge, house, farm,’ OHG. gart, m., ‘circle, choral dance,’ AS. geard (E. yard), ‘enclosure, garden’ (E. garden was borrowed in MidE. from OFr. gardin, jardin, which is of Ger. origin). ‘Enclosing,’ and ‘the enclosed space’ are the fundamental ideas of the whole class, which might thus be connected with gürten, Teut. root gerd, if the correspondences in the cognate languages did not prove that ‘Garten’ is a pre-Teut., perhaps a common West Aryan form, which cannot belong to a specifically Teut. root. But HG. Garten is most closely connected with Lat. hortus, ‘garden,’ Gr. χόρτος, ‘enclosure, yard, farmyard, pasture, hay, grass,’ OIr. gort, ‘cornfield,’ also Lat. co-hors, -tis, f., ‘courtyard for cattle and fowls’; if the Teut. word is allied to these, the d of the Goth. and Sax. words is derived from Aryan t, i.e. Goth. garda is based on Aryan ghortó- (not ghórto- from χόρτο-). On the other hand, Garten may be connected with Slav. and Lith. words, which, however, assume that Goth. and Sax. d originated in Aryan dh; OSluv. gradŭ, m., ‘enclosure, citadel, town’ (as an enclosed place; Lith. gàrdas, ‘fold’). It is possible that in the Teut. class two words, different in sound but allied in meaning, have been combined; but the Slav. words were more probably borrowed from Teut. Comp. Zaun.