An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Keim

by Friedrich Kluge

Keim, masculine, ‘germ, bud, shoot,’ from the equivalent Middle High German kîm, kîme, masculine, Old High German chîm, chîmo, masculine (Gothic *keima, masculine). The Teutonic root is kî, which is widely diffused in the Teutonic group. Gothic has only the participle of a verb derived from this root, us-kijans, ‘sprouted,’ for which, however, an earlier variant, keins, ‘germinated,’ is assumed by the verb us-keinan (-nôda). With the same root kî are connected the dental derives. Anglo-Saxon cîþ, Old Saxon kîð, Old High German chîdi ( ikîdi), Middle High German kîde, Modern High German dialectic Keide, ‘shoot.’ Old Saxon and Old High German kînan, ‘to germinate,’ has a present affix n of the root kî; the identical Anglo-Saxon cînan, ‘to spring up, burst, burst to pieces, germinate,’ and the corresponding Anglo-Saxon substantive činu, Middle English chine, ‘rift, crack,’ prove that the meaning ‘to germinate’ originated in the actual perception of budding.