An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/roh

by Friedrich Kluge

roh, adjective, ‘rude, raw, crude, rough,’ from Middle High German rô (inflected râwer), Old High German rô (insl. râwêr), ‘raw, uncooked, rude’ (for earlier hrū̆wa-); compare the equivalent Old Saxon hrâ, Dutch raauw, Anglo-Saxon hreá, English raw, Old Icelandic hrár (for *hrávr), ‘raw, uncooked.’ This adjective, which is wanting in Gothic (*hrawa-, *hrêwa-), points to a Teutonic root hrū̆, from pre-Teutonic krū̆, which appears in numerous forms, such as Latin cruor, cruentas, crûdus (for *cruvidus?), Greek κρέας, ‘flesh,’ Sanscrit kravis, ‘raw meat,’ Sanscrit krûras, ‘bloody,’ Old Slovenian krŭvi, Lithuanian kraújas, ‘blood.’