An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/bauchen

by Friedrich Kluge

bauchen, verb, ‘to steep in hot lye’ (Low German büken, Middle Low German bûken), from the equivalent Middle High German bûchen, Old High German *bûhhên; English to buck (dialectic to bouk), for which even a Middle English term bouken occurs a few times, points to Anglo-Saxon *bûcian; to these Swedish byka, Icelandic bauka, and Norwegian boykja, are allied. The word is, moreover, diffused through most of the Teutonic languages, and correctly represents Middle High German bûchen; only in the Bavarian dialect is the word unrecorded. Hence the existence of a Teutonic verbal root bûk (to which Anglo-Saxon bûc, ‘pail,’ is allied?) is undoubted, and the Romance cognate, French buer (Italian bucare), ‘to wash,’ is more probably borrowed from the Teutonic than vice versâ. The Keltic origin of bauchen (Breton boukat, ‘to soften’) is impossible.