An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/schreiten

by Friedrich Kluge

schreiten, verb, ‘to step, stride, stalk,’ from the equivalent Middle High German schrîten, Old High German scrîtan, Middle High German also ‘to leap into the saddle.’ Compare Old Saxon skrîðan, skrîdan, ‘to stride, go’ (ti-scrîdan, ‘to dissolve’), Dutch schrijden, ‘to stride,’ Anglo-Saxon scrîðan, ‘to stride, go, wander’ (whence English to stride is allied?), Old Icelandic skrîða, ‘to crawl, glide.’ The signification of the Old Teutonic verbal root skrìþ (skrī̆d), Aryan skrī̆t, was at first general (perhaps ‘to move slowly’), in contrast to the special sense in Modern High German.