An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/tilgen

by Friedrich Kluge

tilgen, verb, ‘to extinguish, erase, eradicate,’ from Middle High German tîlgen (tîligen), Old High German tîligon, and also tîlôn, weak verb, ‘to exterminate, extirpate.’ Compare Old Saxon far-dîligôn, Dutch delgen, Anglo-Saxon â-dîlgian, ‘to extirpate.’ It is remarkable that the word was borrowed from Latin dêlêre, considering its wide diffusion in the West Teutonic languages (we should also have expected *tialên in Old High German).