An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Storch

by Friedrich Kluge

Storch, masculine, ‘stork,’ from the equivalent Middle High German storch (variant storc, whence Stork, common to Upper German and West Thuringian); Old High German storah (hh), also storc, masculine; compare Anglo-Saxon storc, English stork, and the equivalent Old Icelandic storkr. Its prehistoric connection with Greek τόργος, ‘vulture,’ is dubious. On the other band, the Slavonic cognates, Old Slovenian stĭrkŭ, Russian sterchŭ, ‘stork,’ must have been borrowed from Old Teutonic.