An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Dorsche

by Friedrich Kluge

Dorsche, feminine, ‘cabbage-stump, cole-rape,’ with Low German initial d, from Middle High German torse, ‘cabbage-stump,’ Old High German tursö, torso, ‘stalk’; for the change of s to sch compare birschen. There is a parallel Romance class (Italian torso, Old French tros, ‘stump, morsel’) which is undoubtedly of Teutonic origin. The High German word is probably primitively allied to the Greek θύρσος, ‘wand.’