An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/sagen

by Friedrich Kluge

sagen, verb, ‘to say, tell, utter,’ from the equivalent Middle High German sagen, Old High German sagên; corresponding to Old Saxon sęggian, Low German seggen, Dutch zeggen, Anglo-Saxon sęcgan (from *sagjan). English to say, and its equivalent Old Icelandic segja. In Gothic both *sagan and every other derivative from the same root are wanting. Teutonic sagai-, which comes by the rule of grammatical change from Aryan sokē̆y-, is closely allied to Lithuanian sakýti, ‘to say,’ Old Slovenian sočiti, ‘to notify’; with this Old Latin insece, ‘I narrate’ (in-sectiones, ‘tales’), is usually connected, as well as the Greek root σεπ, σεκϝ in ἔννεπε for ἐν-σεπε, ἔ-σπ-ετε, ‘tell (thou or ye).’ Old Irish sagim, saigim, ‘I speak, say,’ also point to a similar class. In Romance only one loan-word of this class is found; compare Spanish sayon, ‘usher’ (of a law-court), literally ‘speaker.’