An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/haben

by Friedrich Kluge

haben, verb, ‘to have, possess,’ from the equivalent Middle High German haben, Old High German habên; corresponding to Old Saxon hebbian, Dutch hebben, Anglo-Saxon habban, English to have, Old Icelandic hafa, Gothic haban; a common Teutonic verb with the stem habai-. Its identity with Latin habere can scarcely be doubted. It is true that Latin h initially requires, according to the laws of substitution, a Teutonic g, and Teutonic h a Latin c (compare Gast, Gerste, Geist, and Hals, Haut, and heben). Probably Latin habê- and Teutonic habai- are based upon an Aryan primary form khabhêj; the correspondence between Teutonic h and Latin h is only possible on the assumption of an Aryan kh. On this supposition haben and heben in their etymology are primitively allied, just as Latin habere and capere.