An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Fleisch

by Friedrich Kluge

Fleisch, neuter, ‘flesh, meat, pulp (of fruit),’ from the equivalent Middle High German vleisch, Old High German fleisk, neuter; it has the same meaning in West Teutonic and Scandinavian. Strange to say, a Gothic *flaisk, *flaiskis, neuter (or þl- compare fliehen), is not recorded, the term used being leik or mims, neuter. Compare Dutch vleesch, Anglo-Saxon flœ̂sc, English flesh; Old Icelandic flesk is used only of ‘pork,’ and more especially of ‘ham’ and ‘bacon,’ while kjǫt was the common Scandinavian word for ‘meat.’ It may well be imagined that the Scandinavian specialised meaning of the word was the oldest, and that the meaning common to West Teutonic was established only by generalisation; compare Old Icelandic flikke, Anglo-Saxon flicce, English flitch (dialectic flick), as well as Anglo-Saxon (Kent.) flœc for flœ̂sc, ‘meat.’ Russian poltĭ, Lithuanian páltis, ‘flitch,’ cannot, on account of their vowel-sounds, be cognates. The k of the Old Teutonic word is probably a suffix; compare Dutch vleezig, ‘plump’?. — eingefleischt, ‘incarnate,’ simply Modern High German formed like the Latin incarnatus, ‘embodied.’