An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/dichten

by Friedrich Kluge

dichten, vb., ‘to invent, imagine, write, fabricate,’ from MidHG. tihten, ‘to write, draw up (in writing), compose, invent, excogitate’; the ModHG. meaning is very much restricted compared with the fulness of MidHG. Even in the 16th and 17th cents. Dichter (MidHG. tihtœre) meant generally ‘writer, author,’ and was applied to the prose writer as well as the poet. The origin of dichten (OHG. tihtôn, ‘to write, compose’), from Lat. dictare, ‘to dictate,’ late Lat. also ‘to compose,’ may have favoured the change from tichten to dichten; AS. dihtan, which is of the same origin, has the further signification ‘to arrange, array.’