An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Bretzel

by Friedrich Kluge

Bretzel, masculine, feminine, ‘cracknell,’ from the equivalent Middle High German brezel, also breze, Old High German brezitella and brezita (bergita); allied to Bavarian die bretzen, Suabian brätzg, brätzet, Alsatian brestell. The Suabian form as well as Old High German brizzilla presupposes a Teutonic ë; but the vowel sounds of the remaining forms are uncertain. It is most frequently referred to Middle Latin brâcéllum (whence brăzil, and by mutation brĕzil’), or rather brâchiólum, ‘little arm’ (the different kinds of pastry are named from their shape; compare e.g. Middle High German krâpfe, ‘hook, hook-shaped pastry’); Middle High German brœzte would be brâchitum. From Old High German brézitella the Modern High German Bretstelle (Strassb.) was produced, while breztella was resolved by a wrong division of syllables into Bret-s-telle; thus we deduce In Modern High German Tapfe from Fußtapfe, i.e. Fuß-stapfe. The absence of the word in Romance (yet compare Italian bracciatello) seems to militate against the derivation of the whole of this class from Latin bracchium. In that case Old High German bergita, brezita, might perhaps be connected with Anglo-Saxon byrgan, ‘to eat,’ Old Irish bargen, ‘cake.’