An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Knäuel

by Friedrich Kluge

Knäuel, masculine and neuter, ‘clew,’ from Middle High German kniuwel, kniulîn, kniul, neuter, ‘small clew or ball’; the n by differentiation represents l on account of the final l (see Knoblauch); Middle High German kliuwel, kliuwelîn, dimins. of Middle High German kliuwe, neuter, ‘clew, ball’; Old High German chliuwelîn, diminutive of chliuwa, chliwa, feminine, ‘ball, clew’; Anglo-Saxon cleówe, clŷwe, neuter, Middle English cleewe, English clew; also Anglo-Saxon cleówen, clŷwen, masculine like Middle German klûwen, Dutch kluwen, ‘skein.’ Old High German also kliwi, kliuwi, neuter, Middle High German kliuwe, neuter, ‘clew.’ A richly developed nominal stem peculiar to West Teutonic; the Gothic form is probably *kliwi (kliujis), neuter or *kliujô, neuter; the root klū̆, by gradation klē̆u, appears also perhaps in Klaue (Gothic *klêwa), which in that case was so called from its contracting; compare Latin gluere, ‘to contract,’ glûma, ‘husk,’ also Sanscrit glâus, ‘bale,’ hence Aryan root glu. Latin glŏbus and glŏmus are not connected with this word.