An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/zanken

by Friedrich Kluge

zanken, verb, ‘to quarrel,’ from late Middle High German zanken, zęnken, ‘to dispute’; a remarkably late word, not recorded in the earlier Teutonic periods. Perhaps Middle High German zanke (a variant of Zinke), ‘prong, point,’ is the base of zanken, which must then have meant ‘to be pointed.’