An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Aal

by Friedrich Kluge

Aal, masculine, ‘eel,’ from the equivalent Middle High German Old High German âl, masculine, a term common to the Teutonic dialects; compare Old Icelandic âll, Anglo-Saxon œ̂l, English eel, Dutch aal (allied perhaps to Alant i.). No original affinity to the equivalent Latin anguilla, Greek ἔγχελυς, is possible, for the sounds of the Teutonic words differ too much from it; even from *anglu-, Old High German âl or Anglo-Saxon œ̂l could not be derived. Besides, there is no hereditary stock of names of fishes possessed in common by Teutonic and Greek and Latin (see Fisch). —