An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Wind

by Friedrich Kluge

Wind, masculine, ‘wind,’ from the equivalent Middle High German wint (d), Old High German wint, masculine; corresponding to Gothic winds, Anglo-Saxon and English wind (to which window from Old Icelandic windauga, literally ‘wind eye,’ is allied), Dutch and Old Saxon wind, ‘wind.’ The common Teutonic windo-, from Aryan wē̆ntó-, is identical in form with the equivalent Latin ventus, and Sanscrit vãta, masculine, ‘wind’ (compare also Greek ἀήτης?); they are derivatives of the present participle wē̆-nt- of the root wê, ‘to blow’ (see wehen); for the form of the word compare Zahn. While this word extends beyond Teutonic the terms for the chief directions of the wind are peculiar to that group (see Nord, Ost, &c.).