An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Gabel

by Friedrich Kluge

Gabel, feminine, ‘fork, shafts (of a vehicle),’ from the equivalent Middle High German gabele, gabel, Old High German gabala, gabal, feminine; corresponding to Dutch gaffel (hence Modern Icelandic gaffall, ‘fork’), Anglo-Saxon rarely, geaful, masculine, ‘fork’ (for which, even in the Anglo-Saxon period, forc, English fork occurs). Gabel seems to be related by gradation to Giebel, and in that case the oldest shape of the fork must have been a sort of acute angle like a gable. Yet the supposition that the word was borrowed is not to be rejected, especially since ‘the form of an acute angle’ can hardly be the primary meaning of Giebel. Note the correspondence with Keltic words; Old Irish gabul, ‘fork,’ gabhla, ‘shears,’ Welsh gebel, ‘tongs,’ Latin gabalus ‘(gable-shaped) gallows’; to these also Old Indian gábhasti, ‘fork, shaft,’ may be allied, in which case it would follow that the West Teutonic Gabel is perhaps primitively allied to the Keltic classical.