An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/sterben

by Friedrich Kluge

sterben, verb, ‘to die,’ from the equivalent Middle High German stërben, Old High German stërban, strong verb, corresponding to Old Saxon stërƀan, Dutch sterven, Anglo-Saxon steorfan, ‘to die,’ English to starve. In East Teutonic this term is wanting (compare the root discussed under tot). Old Icelandic, however, preserves a corresponding starf, neuter, ‘work, trouble, effort,’ to which starfa, ‘to take pains,’ and stjarfe, ‘tetanus, locked jaw,’ are allied. The parallel development of Greek οἱ καμόντες, ‘the dead,’ from κάμνω, ‘to take pains,’ shows that we may assign, on the basis of the Scandinavian words, the primary meaning ‘to torment oneself’ to the West Teutonic stërban. Unfortunately the early history of the Teutonic root sterb is obscure. For the primitive Aryan root for ‘to die’ see under Mord.