An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Bach

by Friedrich Kluge

Bach, masculine (Middle Low German and Low German, feminine), from the equivalent Middle High German bach (plural bęche), masculine (Middle German feminine), Old High German bah, masculine, ‘brook.’ Compare Old Saxon bęki, Middle Low German beke, Dutch beek; a corresponding Gothic *baki-, masculine, is wanting; beside which the equivalent Anglo-Saxon becc, and Old Icelandic bekkr (whence English beck), masculine, presuppose a Gothic *bakki-. No Aryan root bhag- with a meaning applicable here can be found; both High German backen and Greek πηγή), ‘source,’ are scarcely allied to it, though Sanscrit bhañga, ‘breach, wave’ (see Bruch) may be so.