An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/verlieren

by Friedrich Kluge

verlieren, verb, ‘to lose,’ from the equivalent Middle High German verliesen, Old High German virliosan; a common Teutonic strong verb, to which the equivalent Gothic fraliusan, Anglo-Saxon forleósan, Dutch verliezen correspond. Greek λύω, ‘to loosen’ (ἀλεύω, ‘to avoid, keep far away’?), Latin solvo (participle so-lû-tus), ‘to loosen’ (Sanscrit lû, ‘to tear to pieces’), and Gothic luns, ‘ransom,’ which point to an Aryan lū̆, are closely connected with the Teutonic root lus, to which los and lösen are also related. —