An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Flur

by Friedrich Kluge

Flur, feminine, masculine, ‘field, meadow, floor, entrance-hall’; the division in meaning in Modern High German Flur, masculine, ‘vestibule,’ Flur, feminine, 'corn field,’ was unknown to the older language; Middle High German vluor, masculine, feminine, ‘cornfield, floor, ground.’ The meanings ‘entrance to a house, vestibule, paved floor,’ belong to Middle High German and Low German; compare Dutch vloer, ‘vestibule, barn-floor,’ Anglo-Saxon flôr, masculine, feminine, ‘vestibule, barn-floor,’ also ‘storey,’ English floor; Scandinavian flór, ‘floor’ of a cow-house (Gothic flôrus is wanting). The resulting primary meaning, ‘floor,’ has been extended only in High German to ‘corn-field.’ Teutonic flóru-s, from pre-Teutonic plôrus, plârus, is most closely related to Old Irish lár for *plár, ‘floor, paved floor.’ Old Prussian plonis, ‘barn-floor,’ has a different suffix; it is allied to Lithuanian plónas, ‘flat’; hence perhaps it may be connected with Latin plânus.