An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/nein

by Friedrich Kluge

nein, adverb, ‘no,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German nein (negative adverb); so too Old Saxon nên (in the Heliand), ‘no’; derived from the Gothic adverb of negation ni, Old High German ni, Middle High German en-ne (which also appears in the n of nicht, nie, and nirgend), and the neuter of the indefinite article Old High German, Middle High German, and Modern High German ein, equivalent to Gothic ains; nein is therefore ‘not one’ (compare nichts, meaning ‘not something’). The approximate source of English no is the equivalent Anglo-Saxon nâ (Old Icelandic nei), in Gothic nê, ‘no.’ The Gothic negative ni, etymologically cognate with un- and ohne, belongs to the same class as Greek νη (e.g. νη-κερδής, ‘unprofitable’), Latin nĕ (in nĕfas) and nē̆, ‘not, lest, in order that not,’ Sanscrit na, Old Slovenian ne, ‘not,’ Lithuanian ne, ‘not.’