An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/mager

by Friedrich Kluge

mager, adjective, ‘lean, lank, meagre,’ from the equivalent Middle High German mager, Old High German magar, adjective; corresponding to Middle Low German and Dutch mager, Anglo-Saxon mœger, Old Icelandic magr, adjective, ‘lean’; a common Teutonic word, wanting only in Gothic. Considering the wide and early diffusion of the term, its similarity to Latin macer (Italian magro, French maigre) is remarkable. While Middle English mę̂gre, English meagre, are certainly of Romance origin (compare French maigre), Teutonic mager, like Latin macer, ‘lean,’ and Greek μακεδνός, ‘tall,’ μᾶκρός, ‘long,’ may be derived from an Aryan root mā̆k, ‘long, thin’; Lithuanian máżus, ‘little,’ may, like Old High German magar, point to a common root, magh. Yet the supposition that the Teutonic cognates are derived from Low Latin and Italian magro is more probable; note kurz, from Latin curtus.