An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Auer

by Friedrich Kluge

Auer, in Auerochs, masculine, from the equivalent Middle High German ûr, ûr-ochse, Old High German ûr, ûrohso, masculine, ‘aurochs’; corresponds to Anglo-Saxon ûr, Old Icelandic úrr, (u- stem). The fact that even Roman writers knew the Teutonic term under the form ûrus points to *ûrus (not ûzus) as the Gothic form; compare Teutonic and Latin glêsum, ‘amber,’ similar to Anglo-Saxon glœ̂re, ‘resin.’ Hence the proposed explanation of ûr from Sanscrit usrá-s, masculine, ‘bull,’ must be put aside. Internal evidence cannot be adduced to show that the Old German word is non-Teutonic; the assertion of Macrobius that ûrus is Keltic proves nothing. —