An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/spleißen
spleißen, verb, ‘to split, cleave,’ from the equivalent Middle High German splîȥen; corresponding to English to split and the equivalent Dutch splijten; an Old Teutonic root verb which does not occur elsewhere. To this is allied Modern High German Splitter, masculine, ‘splinter,’ from Middle High German splitter, masculine and feminine (Gothic *splitra-; an old tr in High German is not permutated; compare bitter, treu, and zittern), but in Middle High German a term spelter, ‘splinter,’ connected with spalten, is mostly used. Compare Dutch splinter, and the equivalent English splint, splinter, derived from the nasalised root.