An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Weib
Weib, neuter, ‘woman, wife,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German wîp (b), neuter; corresponding to Old Saxon wîf, Dutch wijf, Anglo-Saxon wîf, English wife. If is wanting in Gothic, certainly not by accident (the word used is qinô, qêns). The term wîbo- is specifically Teutonic, while Gothic qinô is prehistorically connected with Greek γυνή, Sanscrit gnâ, ‘woman.’ Its kinship with Greek οἴφειν is dubious; it is more probably related to Sanscrit vip, ‘inspirited, inwardly excited’ (of priests), to which Old High German weibôn, ‘to stagger, be unstable,’ is allied. Hence the Teutons must have coined the term Weib (wîbo- from wîpó-), because in woman they venerated sanctum aliquid et providum. In that case the remarkable gender might perhaps be explained as ‘inspiration, something inspired.’