An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Luft

by Friedrich Kluge

Luft, feminine (Upper German masculine), ‘air, breeze,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German luft, masculine and feminine; a common Teutonic term; compare Gothic luftus, Old Icelandic lopt, Anglo-Saxon lyft (English lift, dialectic only), Old Saxon luft, Dutch lucht, ‘air’. Whether Old Icelandic lopt, ‘loft’ (compare Laube), is a derivative of the same word remains dubious; nor is it of any help in determining the primitive sense of the specifically Teutonic luftu-, especially as indubitable cognates in the non-Teutonic languages are wanting.