An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Nagel

by Friedrich Kluge

Nagel, masculine, from the equivalent Middle High German nagel, Old High German nagal, feminine, ‘nail’; corresponding to Old Saxon nagal, Dutch nagel, Anglo-Saxon nœgel, English nail, Old Icelandic nagl, ‘nail’; Gothic *nagls may be deduced from the recorded verb nagljan, ‘to nail.’ The West Teutonic words have mostly the double sense ‘nail of the finger or toe’ and ‘wooden, iron nail.’ The former meaning, in accordance with the corresponding words in the other Aryan languages, is the original one (in Old Icelandic there is a distinction between nagl, ‘finger-nail,’ and nagle, ‘wooden, iron nail’). Teutonic naglo- originated in Aryan noghlo-, or rather nokhló-; compare Old Indian nakhá, masculine and neuter, ‘finger or toe nail, claw of birds,’ Greek ὀνυχ- (nominative ὄνυξ), ‘claw, talon, hoof,’ then also ‘hook,’ Latin unguis, ‘claw, talon,’ Old Slovenian nogŭtĭ, ‘nail, claw’ (from Old Slovenian nogà, feminine, ‘foot’); Lithuanian nágas, ‘finger-nail,’ nagà, ‘horse's hoof.’ ‘The root nokh, nogh, is unknown; it must not be sought for in nagen, the root of which was rather pre-Teutonic ghnagh. See Nelke.