An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Kirche
Kirche, feminine, ‘church,’ from the equivalent Middle High German kirche (Swiss chilche), Old High German chirī̆hha (Swiss chī̆lihha), feminine; corresponding to Dutch kerk, Anglo-Saxon čiriče, čyriče, English church. As is shown by the Old High German hh of chirī̆hha, the word must have existed before the Old High German period; names of places with Kirche are found in Germany even before the beginning of the 8th century; yet the word is unknown to Gothic (the terms used were gudhûs, ‘the house of God,’ gards or razn - bidô, ‘house of prayer’; also aíkklêsjô, ‘coetus christianorum’). The other Teutonic tribes must, however, have adopted the term from Greek through the medium of Gothic (compare Pfaffe, also Heide, Taufe, and Teufel). It is true that Greek κυριακή (with ἡμέρα understood) during the first ten centuries signified ‘Sunday’ exclusively, and only from the 11th century onwards did it obtain the meaning ‘house of the Lord.’ But since the word is foreign, we may assume that the gender of κυριακόν, ‘church’ (or its plural κῦριακά), recorded from the 4th century, was changed (Old High German chī̆rī̆hha, feminine). Since the Greek word was never current in the Romish Church (the Latin-Romance as well as the Keltic term being ecclesia), we have in Kirche a term of the Greek Church, though in other cases the words adopted with Christianity are essentially Latin (from Gothic *kyreika, Russian cerkovĭ, and Old Slovenian crŭky are also probably derived). The introduction of Kirche through a Gothic medium was possible as late as the 9th century at least, for, according to Wal. Strabo, divine service was celebrated on the Lower Danube in the Gothic language even at that period. —