An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Himmel

by Friedrich Kluge

Himmel, masculine, ‘heaven, sky, canopy, clime,’ from the equivalent Middle High German himel, Old High German himil (Old Bavarian humil, masculine; compare Old Saxon himil, Frisian himul, Dutch hemel, Swedish and Danish himmel; the derivative l is the result of differentiation from an earlier derivative n, formed like Gothic himins, Old Icelandic himenn, with which the Saxon forms with f for m are connected; Anglo-Saxon heofon, masculine, English heaven, Old Saxon heƀan, masculine, Modern Low German heven. These forms are based upon a common Teutonic hemono- (humeno-); on account of its derivative suffix, note too Greek οὐρανό. The Modern High German sense, ‘sky’ is current in all the Teutonic dialects; the word is probably connected with the Old Teutonic stem ham, ‘to cover, veil,’ mentioned under hämisch, Hemd, and Leichnam. Old High German himil has also the meaning ‘ceiling,’ especially in the Old High German derivative himilizzi, Modern High German himelze, a fact which supports the last assumption; compare Anglo-Saxon hûsheofon, Dutch hemel, Middle Low German hemelte, ‘roof.’ The etymology of Himmel (Gothic himins), based upon Old Slovenian kamy, Lithuanian akmŭ, ‘stone,’ as well as upon Sanscrit açmâ, ‘stone, (the stone-roofed) vault of heaven,’ and Greek κάμινος, ‘oven,’ are not satisfactory, since the word probably denoted the ‘covering of the earth’ originally.