An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/fangen

by Friedrich Kluge

fangen, fahen, verb, ‘to catch, seize, fish (an anchor), soften (hides),’ from Middle High German vâhen, vân, Old High German fâhan, ‘to catch, intercept, seize’; the common Teutonic verb — Gothic fâhan, Old Icelandic fá, Anglo-Saxon fôn (for *fôhan from *fõhan; wanting in English) — has the same meaning. Root fanh (whence fãh, fâh), and by a grammatical change fang (this form is really found only in the participle and preterite, but it has made its way in Modern High German into the present also), pre-Teutonic pank. With the Teutonic cognates some have compared the unnasalised root pak, in Latin pax, pacem (literally ‘strengthening’?); akin to the nasalised pango (participle pactum), with g for c?, Sanscrit pãça, ‘cord’; the root pak appears without a nasal in Teutonic fôg; see High German fügen. —