An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Sonne

by Friedrich Kluge

Sonne, feminine, ‘sun,’ from the equivalent Middle High German sunne, Old High German sunna, feminine; a common Teutonic term; compare Gothic sunnô, feminine and neuter, Anglo-Saxon sunne, feminine, English sun, Dutch zon, Old Saxon sunna, feminine. In Old Saxon and Old High German (Middle High German) sunno (sunne) also occurs as masculine, which is similar to Old High German stër-no, mâ-no (see Stern). Old Icelandic sól (corresponding to Gothic souil, Anglo-Saxon sôl), the only term used in Modern Scandinavian, is primitively allied to Latin sôl, Greek ἥλιος, ‘sun,’ which, like Sanscrit svar, ‘sun,’ are based on an Aryan root sā̆́w, sū̆ ‘to give light’; on this root the common Teutonic term sunnôn- may also be based. —