An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Haut

by Friedrich Kluge

Haut, feminine, ‘hide, skin, cuticle,’ from Middle High German, and Old High German hût, feminine, ‘hide’; Modern Dutch huid, Anglo-Saxon hŷd, feminine, English hide, Scandinavian hûð, feminine; the Old Teutonic word for ‘hide’ (Gothic *hûþs, genitive, *hûdais, is by chance not recorded), from pre-Teutonic kûtí-s, feminine; it is Latin cŭtis (for the gradation of û to ŭ, see laut and Sohn); compare Greek κύτος, neuter, ‘skin, covering’; the root has a prefix s in Greek σκῦτος, neuter, ‘skin, leather,’ Latin scû-tum, ‘shield,’ σκῦ-λον, ‘skin, arms stripped of a slain enemy.’ Hence the dental in Old High German hût, Latin cutis, would be a suffix merely; for s-ku as a root meaning ‘to cover, hide,’ see under Scheune, Scheuer. The English verb to hide, from Anglo-Saxon hŷdan, may belong to the same root with an abstract dental suffix *hûdi-, ‘covering,’ hûdjan, ‘to envelop.’ Yet traces exist, as may be seen under Hütte, of a root hud from kudh, ‘to veil,’ in the non-Teutonic languages.