An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/deuten

by Friedrich Kluge

deuten, verb, ‘to point, beckon, interpret, explain,’ from Middle High German diuken, tiuten, Old High German diuten, verb, ‘to show, point, signify, notify, explain, translate’; Gothic *þiudjan; compare Old Icelandic þýða. In place of þiudjan, Gothic has a form þiuþjan, ‘to praise, laud,’ which, however, is scarcely identical with deuten. Probably the latter signifies rather ‘to make popular’; þiuda is the Gothic word for ‘nation’ (see deutsch. Compare Middle High German ze diute, ‘distinct, evident,’ and ‘in German’ (diute, dative singular of diuti, tiute, feminine, ‘exposition, explanation’); note too Anglo-Saxon geþeóde, ‘language’ (as the main characteristic of the nation).