An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Gaukler

by Friedrich Kluge

Gaukler, masculine, ‘buffoon, juggler, impostor,’ from Middle High German goukelœre, Old High German goukalâri, gouggalâri (k from gg, see Hake), ‘magician, conjuror’; from Middle High German goukeln, Old High German goukolôn, gouggolôn, ‘to deal in magic, play the fool.’ Apparently allied to Old High German gougarôn, Middle High German gougern, ‘to roam about,’ also to Middle High German gogeln, ‘to act without restraint, flutter about,’ gogel, adjective, ‘unrestrained, exuberant,’ giege, masculine, ‘fool, dupe’; Dutch goochelaar, ‘buffoon.’ The cognates point to a Teutonic root gug, geug, gaug, ‘to move here and there in a curious fashion like a clown or conjuror’?. Considering the numerous correspondences, it cannot be maintained that Gaukler was derived from Latin joculari, or from Greek καυκίον, ‘small dish or bowl’; both these explanations are opposed by the phonetic relations of the words; in the case of the Greek term there is the further difficulty that we do not know how it was borrowed, and also the fact that no verb ‘to juggle’ occurs in Greek.