An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Schrein

by Friedrich Kluge

Schrein, masculine, ‘box, chest. shrine, coffin,’ from Middle High German schrîn, masculine and neuter, ‘chest for clothes, money, or valuables, coffin,’ Old High German scrìni, neuter; compare the corresponding Dutch schrijn, Anglo-Saxon scrîn, English shrine, Scandinavian skrín. From Romance and Latin scrînium, ‘box, case for papers, &c., escritoire,’ whence also Italian scrigno, ‘clothes-press,’ French écrin, ‘casket.’ The diffusion of the term through the old West Teutonic languages makes it probable that the Latin word was borrowed at an early period, — contemporaneously with Arche, Kiste and Sack?.