An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Ufer

by Friedrich Kluge

Ufer, neuter, ‘shore, bank (of a river),’ a Middle German and Low German word (adopted like Boot, Strand, &c., in the written language), from the equivalent Middle High German uover, neuter. Old High German *uofar (Gothic *ôfr?) is wanting; nor is the word known even now to the Upper German dialects. Compare Middle Low German ôver, Dutch oever, Anglo-Saxon ôfer (obsolete in English; yet Windsor is equivalent to Anglo-Saxon Windles ôfer, ‘the bank of the Windel’). West Teutonic ôfor has been considered, probably without reason, a cognate of Sanscrit ap, ‘water’ (for the evolution of meaning compare Au), and Latin amnis (for *apnis?), ‘river.’ Upper German (Bavarian) urvar, ‘haven, landing-place, bank,’ of the Middle High German period, points rather to a Gothic *us-far, ‘haven’; Gothic-Teutonic uz appears in some West Teutonic dialects as ô (Old High German uo). Hence Ufer is literally ‘departure, setting out’?.