An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Zeit

by Friedrich Kluge

Zeit, feminine, ‘time, epoch, period, tense,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German zit, feminine and neuter (Old High German zîd, neuter); corresponding to Old Saxon tîd, Dutch tijd, Anglo-Saxon tîd, English tide (compare Dutch tij, which is also used of the flow of the sea). The root of Teutonic tî-di-, ‘time,’ is tî-, as is proved by the equivalent Old Icelandic tíme, Anglo-Saxon tîma, English time (compare Gothic hweila under Weile). A corresponding Aryan root dī̆ is presupposed by Sanscrit a-diti, ‘unlimited in time and space, unending, endless’ (the name of the goddess Aditi). Other Teutonic derivatives of the same root are Zeile and Ziel, which also point to the ‘limitless in time or space’. —