An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Dung

by Friedrich Kluge

Dung, masculine, with Low German initial d; ‘dung, manure,’ from Middle High German tunge, feminine, ‘dung, manuring’; Middle High German tunc, masculine, feminine, signifies ‘an underground — properly dung-covered — chamber occupied in winter,’ and especially ‘the underground weaver's room’; Old High German tunga, ‘manuring,’ English dung (substantive and verb); Old High German tunc, ‘weaver's room underground’ (Dünger from late Middle High German tunger). This double meaning of the cognates is explained by the remarks of Tacitus (Germanía, § 16) and Pliny (Hist. Nat., 19, 1). ‘Dung’ is the primary sense of the cognates of Dung and düngen; in the other Aryan languages, however, no primitively cognates can be adduced.