An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Haufe

by Friedrich Kluge

Haufe, masculine, ‘heap, pile, mass,’ from Middle High German hûfe, houfe, masculine, hûf, houf, masculine, ‘heap, troop,’ Old High German hûfo, houf, masculine, ‘heap, troop’; compare Old Saxon hôp, Dutch hoop, Anglo-Saxon heáp, masculine, English heap; Scandinavian hópr, ‘troop,’ is borrowed from Low German; Gothic *haups, *hûpa are wanting; these words, which belong to the same root, are evidently related by gradation (compare Old High German hûba, ‘hood,’ allied to Old High German houbit, ‘head’). Probably related to Old Slovenian kupŭ (Gothic *haupa-), masculine, ‘heap,’ Lithuanian kaúpas, ‘heap,’ kuprà, ‘hump’ (Lettic kupt, ‘to form into a ball’), although the correspondence of Slavonic p to Low German and English p is not normal; Slavonic p is mostly f or b in Low German and Gothic. Since Gothic p indicates pre-Teutonic b, the word may be connected also with Latin incubo, ‘the treasure demon who lies on the hoard, nightmare.’ Others compare it to Lithuanian kugis, ‘heap.’