An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Gang

by Friedrich Kluge

Gang, masculine, ‘going, movement, gait, passage,’ M the equivalent Middle High German ganc(g), Old High German gang, masculine, ‘gait, walking’; corresponding to Old Saxon gang, Dutch gang, Anglo-Saxon gong, masculine, ‘walking, gait’ (compare English gang, gangway, and gangweek), Old Icelandic gangr, neuter, ‘gait, walking,’ Gothic gaggs, ‘lane.’ Also in older Teutonic a strong verb gangan, ‘to go,’ of which only the preterite ging and the participle gegangen are still current in Modern High German. In East Teutonic, in which gehen is wanting, ganga (Old Icelandic) and gaggan (Gothic) have a wider range; yet compare Old Swedish and Old Danish ga, ‘to go.’ In West Teutonic part of gehen has been lost; in English, differing in this respect from German, the older gangan has become entirely obsolete. Teutonic root gang, pre-Teutonic ghangh. The only correspondences in other Aryan languages are Sanscrit jáṅghâ, feminine, ‘leg, foot,’ Lithuanian żengiù (żèngti), ‘to step,’ akin to Lithuanian prażanga, ‘trespass.’