An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Rocken

by Friedrich Kluge

Rocken, masculine, ‘distaff,’ from the equivalent Middle High German rocke, Old High German roccho, masculine; common to Teutonic in the same sense; compare Dutch rok, rocken, Anglo-Saxon *rocca, Middle English rocke, English rock, Old Icelandic rokkr; Gothic *rukka is by chance not recorded. The Teutonic word passed into Romance; compare Italian rocca, ‘distaff.’ It may be doubted whether Recken and Rock are derived from an old root rak, ‘to spin,’ which does not occur elsewhere. At any rate, Rocken is not connected with the equivalent Low German wocken, since the cognates of Rocken, according to the Low German and English terms, have not lost an initial w.