An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/biegen

by Friedrich Kluge

biegen, vb., ‘to bend, curve,’ from the equiv. MidHG. biegen, OHG. biogan, Goth. biugan, ‘to bend.’ In Eng. the word belongs to a different class, AS. bûgan, E. to bow; Du. biugen; comp. beugen, the factitive of this verb. Root bū̆g, from pre-Teut. bhū̆k, the k of which is changed in the regular manner into h in Bühel, OHG. buhil. In OInd. we should have expected *bhuc instead of the recorded bhuj (j for g), which agrees with the Teut. word only in the sense of ‘to bend’; Lat. fugio, Gr. φεύγω have the more remote signification ‘to flee,’ which AS. bûgan also shows. Further cognates are Bogen and biegsam (AS. bûhsom, bûxom, whence E. buxom).