An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Almosen

by Friedrich Kluge

Almosen, neuter, ‘alms, charity,’ from the equivalent Middle High German almuosan, Old High German alamuosan alamôsan, neuter; corresponds to Dutch aalmoes, Anglo-Saxon œlmesse, English alms, Old Icelandic ǫlmusa, feminine,’ alms.’ The derivation from Latin-Greek ἐλεημοσύνη, ‘sympathy, compassion, alms,’ is incontestable; as the Old High German collateral form elemosyna, elimosina indicates, the Latin-Greek origin was as firmly accepted in the Old High German period as the derivation of Old High German chirihha, ‘church,’ from κυριακόν. Yet the question remains how the ecclesiastical word found its way so early into the Teutonic languages, so as to become a common possession of the Middle European and Northern Teutons. The absence of a corresponding Gothic word is explained by the fact that we obtained the word from the Romance nations, as the congruent phonetic form proves: common Romance alimǫsna, in accordance with French aumône, Old French almosne, Provençal almosna, Italian limosina; allied also to Old Irish almsan, Old Slovenian almušino, Lithuanian jalmūšnas.