An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Hebel

by Friedrich Kluge

Hebel, masculine, ‘lever, yeast,’ first occurs in early Modern High German in the sense of ‘lever’; compare Middle High German hębel, hęvel, Old High German hęvilo, masculine, ‘yeast’ (as a means of causing a thing to rise); v, f, as the older form, was supplanted by connecting the word with heben.