An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Rand
Rand, masculine, ‘rim, border, brink,’ from Middle High German rant (genitive randes), masculine, Old High German rant (genitive rantes), masculine, ‘boss of a shield,’ then ‘rim of a shield,’ and finally ‘rim’ (generally); so too Dutch rand, ‘edge, rim,’ Anglo-Saxon rǫnd, masculine, ‘rim of a shield, shield, rim,’ English rand, Old Icelandic rǫnd (for randô-), ‘shield, rim of a shield.’ Gothic *randa, ‘rim,’ is also implied by Spanish randa, ‘lace on clothes.’ Pre-Teutonic *ram-tâ points to a root rem (Anglo-Saxon rĭma, reoma, ‘rim’), the m of which before d would be necessarily changed to n (see hundert, Sand, Sund, and Schande). From the same primary form is derived the modern dialectic term Ranft for Rand; compare Old High German ramft (with an excrescent f as in Kunft? yet compare the equivalent Old Slovenian rąbŭ and Lithuanian rùmbas), masculine, ‘rim, rind, border,’ Middle High German ranft, masculine, ‘frame, rim, rind.’ Rinde also belongs probably to the same stem.