An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/pflücken

by Friedrich Kluge

pflücken, verb, ‘to pluck, gather,’ from the equivalent Middle High German pflücken (Middle German pflocken); Old High German *pflucchen is by chance not recorded; compare Dutch plukken, Anglo-Saxon pluccian (Anglo-Saxon *plyččan may be inferred from Middle English plicchen), English to pluck, Old Icelandic plokka, ‘to pluck’ (birds). Since the word is so widely diffused in Old Teutonic (it is wanting only in Upper German; yet note Swiss blucke, ‘to pluck,’ from the primary form *bluggôn) there is absolutely no foundation for supposing that it has been borrowed. If it be assumed that the cognates found their way to the North with the South European culture of the vine in the 2nd or 3rd century, from Italian piluccare, ‘to gather grapes’ (Provençal pelucar, ‘to pluck out,’ French éplucher), then the early existence of the Romance word must be more definitely established.