An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Malz

by Friedrich Kluge

Malz, neuter, ‘malt,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German malz, neuter; compare Old Saxon and Old Icelandic malt, neuter, Anglo-Saxon mealt, English malt (Gothic *malt, neuter); a common Teutonic word for ‘malt,’ which passed into Slavonic and Finnish (compare Old Slovenian mlato, Finnish mallas), and also into French as malt. Teutonic *maltas belongs to a Teutonic root melt, in Anglo-Saxon mëltan, ‘to dissolve, liquefy, melt,’ to which is allied an Old Icelandic adjective maltr, ‘rotten,’ similar to Old High German and Middle High German malz, ‘melting away, soft, relaxed.’ Perhaps the substantive Malz (Gothic *malt, neuter) is only the neuter of this adjective, meaning ‘that which is soft.’ See further schmelzen.