An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Taufe
Taufe, feminine, ‘baptism, christening,’ from the equivalent Middle High German toufe, Old High German toufa (toufî), feminine; allied to taufen, verb, ‘to baptize, christen,’ Middle High German töufen, toufen, Old High German toufen (from *toufjan). The primary meaning of the verb is preserved by Middle High German toufen, ‘to dip under,’ which is properly a causative of tief. Gothic daupjan, Old Low German dôpian, Dutch doopen, exhibit the Christian meaning, which Anglo-Saxon represented by fulwian (fulwiht, ‘baptism’); compare Old Icelandic kristna, ‘to baptize.’ In its relation to the history of civilisation taufen is as difficult to determine as Heide (which see). It cannot be positively affirmed whether the Middle European term daupjan “has been restricted in meaning solely because the Goths, who were first to receive Christianity, rendered the Greek word βαπτίζειν by the corresponding daupjan; this word, as the designation of the first sacrament, was then adopted from them (with Heide, Kirche, Pfaffe, and Teufel) by the Western Teutons, and was so firmly rooted among the latter that the Anglo-Saxon missionaries could no longer think of supplanting it by their corresponding verb fulwian.” Perhaps, however, the Old Teutonic daupjan had even in the heathen acquired a ritual sense which fitted it to become the representative of the Christian-Romance baptizare (Irish baitism).