An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/hören

by Friedrich Kluge

hören, verb, ‘to hear, give ear to, listen,’ from the equivalent Middle High German hœren, Old High German hôren; common Teutonic hauzjan, ‘to hear’; compare Gothic hœusjan, Old Icelandic heyra, Anglo-Saxon hŷran, hêran, English to hear, Dutch hooren, Old Low German hôrian (compare also the derivative horchen); Teutonic root hauz, from pre-Teutonic kous, to which is allied Greek ἀκούω (for *α-κούσjω?; Hesychius, κοᾷ ἀκούει). - The latter is probably connected with the Aryan stem of Ohr (cus), just as Latin audire stands for *aus-dire (compare auscultare); in that case the Teutonic guttural h, Greek ἀκ, would be the remnant of a prefix. A more widely diffused stem for hören is Old Teutonic hlus and klu, from Pre-Teutonic klus and klu, which, however, is nearly obsolete in Teutonic; compare laut, lauschen, laustern. Derivative gehorsam, from Middle High German and Old High German gehôrsam (Anglo-Saxon gehŷrsum), ‘obedient.’