An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/drücken

by Friedrich Kluge

drücken, drucken, ‘to press, oppress, hug, print,’ from MidHG. drücken, drucken, OHG. drucchen (comp. AS. þryccan, ‘to press’), MidHG. drucken, an unmodified UpG. variant, has a specialised meaning in ModHG. In Goth. the subst. would be *þrukks, the vb. þrukkjan. Since the MidHG. vb. drücken is equiv. to ‘to press, throng, oppress, thrust oneself,’ the meanings harmonise well with dringen, which is based upon an Aryan root trenk, while drücken would be derived from a root trek without the nasal; the kk of the theoretical Goth. form originated probably in kn. —