An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Düne

by Friedrich Kluge

Düne, feminine, ‘down, dune,’ simply Modern High German from the equivalent Low German düne (Old Saxon *dûna), Dutch duin (whence French dune); respecting Modern High German ü from Dutch ui, compare Büse, Süden. Akin to Anglo-Saxon dûn, ‘hill,’ English down (‘plateau’), So too English down, adverb; for Anglo-Saxon adûne, ofdûne, ‘from the mountain, towards the valley,’ corresponds exactly to Middle High German ze tal (compare French à mont, ‘up the stream’). Likewise Greek θύραζε, ‘before the door,’ has the general meaning ‘outside’; Middle High German ze bërge is ‘aloft, upwards’; compare Modern High German die, Haare stehen einem zu Berge, ‘one's hair stands on end.’ The düne group (English down) seems to have spread from English into Dutch and Low German (compare besides Bake, Boot, Prahm). Hence the assumption that Anglo-Saxon dûn is of Keltic origin is not to be discarded — Old Irish dûn, ‘hill’ (compare the Old Keltic names of towns ending in dûnum, Augustodiunum, Lugdunum); though the attempt to show that it is primitively allied to Greek θῖν (nominative θίς), ‘sea-beach,’ and Sanscrit dhánu-s, ‘dry land, continent, inhospitable land,’ cannot be recommended; Anglo-Saxon dûn would be pre-Teutonic dhûnâ (the indubitable form of the cognate word in Indian).