An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Klei

by Friedrich Kluge

Klei, masculine, ‘clay,’ Modern High German only, from Low German klei, ‘slime, loam, moist earth,’ allied to Dutch klei, feminine, ‘marsh soil, clay, loam'; compare English clay, from Anglo-Saxon clœ̂g. An assumed Gothic *kladdja, feminine, may be connected with the root klai, by gradation klî, meaning ‘to cleave (to),’ which has a wider ramification in Old Teutonic; Anglo-Saxon clâm (from klaim), ‘loam, clay,’ English (dialectic) cloam, ‘pottery,’ Old High German chleimen, Scandinavian kleima, klîna, ‘to besmear’; compare Kleister and klein. It corresponds in the non-Teutonic languages to Greek γλοι, by gradation γλι; compare γλοιός, ‘oil lees, clammy stuff,’ as well as γλίνη and γλιά, ‘glue'; Latin glus, gluten, with û for older oi; Old Slovenian glina, ‘clay,’ glěnŭ, ‘slime’ (Lettic glĭwe, ‘slime’?). Further Middle High German klënen, ‘to cleave (to), spread over,’ is connected with the Greek and Slavonic noun with the suffix na.