An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Gicht

by Friedrich Kluge

Gicht, feminine and neuter, ‘gout, mouth of a furnace,’ from the equivalent Middle High German giht, neuter English (chiefly in the collective form gegihte, neuter), ‘gout, convulsions, spasms.’ Old High German *gihido may be inferred from Anglo-Saxon gihða, masculine, ‘paralysis’; this dental suffix is frequent in old names of diseases. The root gih is not found elsewhere, and its primary meaning is obscure. Gehen cannot in any case be allied, since it presumes a root gai (from ga and a root ī̆; nor could we from this comparison infer the primary meaning of Gicht.