An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Ofen

by Friedrich Kluge

Ofen, masculine, ‘from the equivalent Middle High German oven, Old High German ovan, masculine, ‘oven’; so too with the same meaning Middle Low German and Dutch oven, Anglo-Saxon ofen, English oven, Old Icelandic ofn, ogn (Swedish ugn), Gothic aúhns; the word is common to Teutonic, hence the thing signified must also be primitively. The variation of guttural and labial is seen also in the forms primitively cognate with these, Sanscrit ukhâ, ‘pot,’ and Greek ἱπνός, ‘oven’ (for uknos, which is indicated by Gothic aúhns). The original sense, ‘pot,’ seems also to follow from Anglo-Saxon ofnet, ‘little vessel.’