An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Narbe

by Friedrich Kluge

Narbe, feminine (apparently hardly known in Upper German), ‘scar,’ from the equivalent Middle High German narwe, late Old High German narwa, feminine, literally ‘narrowness, contraction’; a feminine substantive from the adjective narwa- (Old Saxon naru, Anglo-Saxon nearu, English narrow), ‘narrow’ (compare Nehrung). Compare in the non-Teutonic languages, Lithuanian nèr-ti, ‘to thread (a needle),’ narvà, ‘cell of the queen-bee.’