An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/spinnen

by Friedrich Kluge

spinnen, verb, ‘to spin,’ from the equivalent Middle High German spinnen, Old High German spinnan, strong verb; common to Teutonic in the same sense. Compare Gothic spinnan, Old Icelandic spinna, Anglo-Saxon spinnan, English to spin, Dutch spinnen. While the cognates of Modern High German weben are common to Teutonic, those of spinnen have only Lithuanian pìnti, ‘to plait’ (pántis, ‘cord’), and Old Slovenian pęti, ‘to stretch,’ connected with them; compare the pre-Teutonic roots pen and spen, which occur also in Fahne. It is also frequently assumed that spinnen and spannen are allied. —