An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/nehmen

by Friedrich Kluge

nehmen, verb, ‘to take, accept,’ from the equivalent Middle High German nëmen, Old High German nëman; a common Teutonic strong verb with the same signification throughout the group; compare Gothic, Old Saxon, and Anglo-Saxon niman, Old Icelandic nema. The most nearly allied in sense to these are Latin emere and Old Irish em (Old Slovenian imą?), ‘to take,’ with which nehmen is connected in sound if its initial n is the relic of a particle. Old Teutonic nëman may, however, be compared more probably with Greek νέμω, ‘to distribute, pasture’ (transitive) γέμος (νόμος), ‘pasturage,’ equivalent to Latin nemus, ‘grove,’ Greek γόμος, ‘law,’ in which case it is especially connected with the mid. verb νέμεσϑαι, ‘to distribute among themselves, possess, consider as, hold.’