An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/elf

by Friedrich Kluge

elf, eilf, numeral, ‘eleven,’ from the equivalent Middle High German eilf, eilif, einlif, Old High German einlif; a term common to Teutonic for ‘eleven.’ Compare Old Saxon êlleƀan (for ênliƀan), Anglo-Saxon ândleofan, endleofan (for ânleofan), English eleven, Old Icelandic eilifu, Gothic aintif. A compound of Gothic ains, High German ein, and the component -lif in Zwölf (Gothic twalif). In the non-Teutonic languages only Lithuanian has a corresponding formation; compare Lithuanian vënólika, ‘eleven,’ twýlika, ‘twelve,’ trŷlika, keturiólika (and so on up to nineteen); the f of the German word is a permutation of k, as in Wolf (λύκος). The signification of the second component, which is met with in Teutonic only in the numbers elf and zwölf, is altogether uncertain. Some have derived the compound, upon which the Lithuanian and Teutonic words are based, from the Aryan root lik, ‘to remain over’ (see leihen), or from the Aryan root lip (see bleiben), and regarded elf as ‘one over.’