An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Torf

by Friedrich Kluge

Torf, masculine, ‘turf, peat,’ Modern High German only, a Low German loan-word unknown to Bavarian; compare Low German torf, Dutch, Anglo-Saxon, and English turf, and the equivalent Old Icelandic torf. In Old High German we find a genuine High German form zurba, ‘sward,’ with a normal permutation, for which Swiss now has turbe, with the Low German permutation. The Old Teutonic word passed (in a Low German form) into Romance; compare Italian torbo, French tourbe, ‘turf.’ This form Torf (literally ‘sward’), originally common to Teutonic, is based on pre-Teutonic drbh, and is connected with Sanscrit darbhá, ‘tuft of grass.’