An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/straucheln

by Friedrich Kluge

straucheln, verb, ‘to stumble,’ from the equivalent Middle High German strûcheln, an intensive form of Old High German strûhhên, strûhhôn, ‘to stumble’; it corresponds to the equivalent Dutch struikelen. To this is allied the root verb Old Icelandic strjúka, ‘to stroke, rub’; but Modern High German Strauch is scarcely connected with this Teutonic root strū̆k, ‘to glide’ (at all events straucheln is not ‘to entangle oneself in bushes’). It is uncertain whether Greek στρεύγεσθαι, ‘to grow tired,’ is a cognate.