An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/schön

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schön, adjective, ‘beautiful, handsome, fine,’ from Middle High German schœne, Old High German scôni, ‘shining, bright, splendid, beautiful'; compare Old Saxon skôni, ‘shining, light, beautiful,’ Anglo-Saxon sčŷne, ‘beautiful,’ English sheen. Originally ‘perceptible, worth seeing, noteworthy’ (compare laut, literally ‘that which is heard’); a verbal adjective from the Teutonic root skau, ‘to look,’ in Old High German scouwôn (for the formation of the word see rein). Gothic has preserved only the cognate compounds, guþaskaunei, ‘form of God,’ and ibnaskauns, ‘of like appearance with,’ which imply a Gothic *skauns, ‘form’?. At all events, they show that the modern sense ‘beautiful’ did not originally belong to the word. With the same root are connected the words adduced under schauen and Old Icelandic skjóne, ‘dapple-grey horse,’ skjóme, ‘ray.’ See schon, schonen, and especially schauen.