An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Rüssel

by Friedrich Kluge

Rüssel, masculine, ‘trunk (of an elephant), snout,’ from the equivalent Middle High German rüeȥel, masculine; Modern High German has shortened the real stem vowel as in lassen, from Middle High German lâȥen. Old High German *ruoȥil, earlier *wruoȥil, are unrecorded. Compare the equivalent Anglo-Saxon wrôt, East Frisian wrôte, formed without the l suffix; also Old High German ruozzen, ‘to root or tear up the earth,’ Dutch wroeten and North Frisian wretten, ‘to root,’ Anglo-Saxon wrôtan, wrôtian, English to root. The Teutonic root wrôt, ‘to root up’ (Rüssel is literally ‘the uprooting snout of a pig’), from pre-Teutonic wrôd (yet see Wurzel), has not yet been discovered in the non-Teutonic languages; perhaps Latin rôdere, ‘to gnaw,’ is primitively allied.