An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/dünn

by Friedrich Kluge

dünn, adjective, ‘thin, slender, attenuated,’ from the equivalent Middle High German dünne, Old High German dunni; compare Anglo-Saxon þynne, English thin, Old Icelandic þunnr, Dutch dun, Gothic *þunnus. The adjective retained the primitive meaning ‘thin’ in all the periods and dialects of Teutonic. The stem þunnu is preserved in Old High German dunwęngi, Anglo-Saxon þunwenge, Old Icelandic þunnvange, ‘temples,’ properly ‘thin cheek’ (compare Modern High German dialectic Duninge, Dünege, ‘temples’). The adjective is primitively Aryan, in the form tanú-s (respecting Teutonic nn compare Kinn, Mann); compare Old Indian tanú-s, ‘long, drawn out, narrow, thin’; Latin tenuis, ‘thin, narrow’; Greek τανυ-, existing only in compounds, denotes ‘drawn or stretched out, long’; compare ταναός, which has the same meaning; Old Slovenian tĭnŭkŭ, ‘thin,’ has a suffix. The idea of attenuation comes from ‘extension in one direction, drawn out lengthwise,’ still retained by the Indian and the Greek adjectives Latin, Teutonic, and Slavonic deprived the originally meaning of one of its characteristics. In Old Indian and Greek there occurs a verbal stem, tanu (τανυ), with the primary sense ‘to stretch out, extend.’ Compare dehnen, Dohne, Donner, and the following word.