An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Arche
Arche, feminine, ‘ark,’ from Middle High German, arche (also arke), Old High German arahha (also archa), feminine, ‘Noah's ark.’ The Modern High German form with ch (instead of k) seems to point to Upper Germany (Luther’s Bible has Noahs Kasten); Old High German buoh-arahha, ‘book-chest,’ Middle High German arche, ‘chest, money-chest.’ It corresponds to Dutch ark, ‘Noah’s ark,’ Anglo-Saxon earc, masculine, earce, feminine, ‘chest, covenant, ark, box,’ English ark, Old Icelandic ǫrk, feminine, ‘chest, coffin, Noah’s ark,’ Gothic arka, feminine, ‘box, money-box, Noah's ark.’ This widely diffused word was borrowed at an early period from the equivalent Latin (also Romance) arca, which, as the meanings of the Teutonic group coextensive with those of the Latin indicate, was not perhaps naturalised on the introduction of Christianity, to which the more recent meaning of ‘Noah's ark’ may refer. Both the word and the thing had probably at the beginning of our era found their way to the Teutons with Latin cista. See Kiste and Sack.