An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Fisch

by Friedrich Kluge

Fisch, masculine, ‘fish,’ from the equivalent Middle High German visch, Old High German fisk, masculine; a common Teutonic term; compare Gothic fisks, Old Icelandic fiskr, Anglo-Saxon fisc, English fish, Dutch visch, Old Saxon fisc. Teutonic fiska-z, from pre-Teutonic pisko-s, corresponds to Latin piscis and Old Irish iasc (with the normal loss of p from prehistoric peiskos). The word belongs to the three most western groups of the Aryan division, which have also the word Meer in common; in East Aryan matsya. Further, there are no names of fishes common to Teutonic and Latin-Keltic. Perhaps the term was a migratory word of early civilization, the source of which cannot be discovered.