An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/dulden

by Friedrich Kluge

dulden, verb (unknown to the Suabian, and perhaps also to the other Upper German dialects), ‘to bear, tolerate, suffer,’ from the equivalent Middle High German and Old High German dulten; a denominative of Old High German dult, Middle High German dult, feminine, Modern High German Geduld. The Goth used þulan for dulden without the dental derivative (Old High German dolên, Middle High German doln, both far more general in meaning than the Modern High German dulden, ‘to suffer’; Anglo-Saxon þolian, ‘to suffer’). The pre-Teutonic root is tel, tol, tlê, which appears, exactly corresponding to the meaning of the Teutonic cognates, in Greek τλή-μων ‘to suffer,’ τλή-μων, ‘miserable,’ πολύτλας, ‘much enduring,’ &c. Latin tolerâre and ertragen (Latin perferre), show that Latin tollo (participle latus tor *tlâ-tus; preterite tuli, from offero), and Greek τολμᾶν, ‘to venture, endure,’ may be cognates. Hence the primary sense of the root appearing in the graded forms tel, tol, tlê, tlâ, is ‘to bear, tolerate.’ See Geduld.