An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/impfen

by Friedrich Kluge

impfen, verb, ‘to ingraft, vaccinate,’ from the equivalent Middle High German (rare) impfen, Old High German (rare) impfôn, for which the usual forms are Middle High German imp(f)eten, Old High German impfitôn, mostly impitôn, ‘to inoculate, ingraft’; yet compare also Anglo-Saxon impian, English to imp. Impfen, just like pfropfen and pelzen, seems, on account of Old High German impfôn and Anglo-Saxon impian, to have been borrowed about the 7th or 8th century from Latin; yet only Old High German impitôn can be explained as directly borrowed from a Latin horticultural term; compare Latin-Romance putare, ‘to prune’ (compare Italian potare, Spanish podar), to which Franconian possen, Dutch and Low German poten, ‘to ingraft,’ are related. The correspondence of Old High German impitôn, with French enter, ‘to ingraft’ (from *empter), is remarkable; compare Dutch, Middle Dutch, and Middle Low German enten, ‘to inoculate’ (from empten). With the Middle Latin base imputare (tor Latin amputare?), Old High German impfôn and Anglo-Saxon impian may be connected by the intermediate link impo(d)are, unless it is based rather like French (Lorr.) opé, ‘to inoculate,’ upon a Latin *impuare. The usual derivation of all the Teutonic and Romance words from Greek ἐμφυτεύω, ἐμφύω, ‘to ingraft,’ is perhaps conceivable. Moreover, the medical term impfen has been current only since the 18th century.