An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Hof

by Friedrich Kluge

Hof, masculine, ‘yard, courtyard, manor, court,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German hof (hoves), masculine; compare Old Saxon and Dutch hof, masculine, Anglo-Saxon hof, neuter (obsolete at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period); in West Teutonic ‘courtyard, farm, garden (thus in Dutch and Old High German), (prince's) palace,’ Anglo-Saxon also ‘circle, district, globe.’ Old Icelandic hof, neuter (the same gender as in Anglo-Saxon), ‘temple with a roof,’ later also (under German influence) ‘palace, courtyard.’ Gothic *hufa-, masculine and neuter, is curiously wanting. Since the cognates are based upon pre-Teutonic kúpo, they cannot be allied to Greek κῆπος, ‘garden,’ Latin campus.