An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Flagge

by Friedrich Kluge

Flagge, feminine, ‘flag, ensign, standard,’ borrowed, like most words with gg (see Dogge, Bagger), from Low German and Dutch in the Modern High German period; compare Dutch vlag, English flag, Danish flag, Swedish flagg. A modern Teutonic word not recorded in the earlier periods. In which of the Teutonic maritime tribes this and other nautical terms were first used we know not, for the earlier history eludes us. Since, however, Anglo-Saxon preserves the earliest forms of a number of nautical terms which are afterwards found in all the cognate languages (see Bord, Boot, Helm (2), Spriet, &c.), the silence of the Anglo-Saxon records — no term *flacge is found — may be accepted as a proof that Flagge is not native to England.