An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Hirsch

by Friedrich Kluge

Hirsch, masculine (in Hessian and Alemannian occurs a variant Hirß, whence the Alemannian proper name Hirzel), ‘stag, hart,’ from Middle High German hirȥ, hirz, masculine, Old High German hiruȥ, hirȥ, hirz; the sch in Hirsch is from an older Hirß (compare Hirse, herrschen, Arsch, birschen). Corresponding to Dutch hert, neuter, Anglo-Saxon heorot, heort, masculine, English hart, Scandinavian hjǫrtr; Teutonic *herut-, from *herwut, *herwo-t, with a dental suffix, allied to Latin cervu-s (t occurs as a suffix in names of animals in Teutonic; compare Gemse, Krebs, and Hornisse); the latter is usually connected with Greek κεραός. ‘horned’ (allied to κέρας ; compare Horn). Hence the stag in Latin and Teutonic may have been named from its antlers (the Old Teutonic languages naturally have a distinct word for the hornless female; see Hinde). A more prevalent term is Aryan eln-, in Greek ἔλαφος, Armenian eln, Lithuanian élnis, Old Slovenian jelenĭ (also Welsh elain, ‘hind’.