An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/trocken

by Friedrich Kluge

trocken, adjective ‘dry, barren,’ from the equivalent Middle High German trocken, trucken (truchen), Old High German trochan (trucchan); compare Old Saxon drucno, drocno, ‘dry.’ Corresponding to the equivalent Low German dreuge, Dutch droog (compare Droge, to which Dutch droogte, ‘dryness,’ is allied), Anglo-Saxon drŷge, English dry (allied to drought), which are derived from cognate roots. With the Teutonic root drū̆k, drū̆g, draug, ‘to be dry,’ is also connected Old Icelandic draugr, ‘dry wood.’ A pre-Teutonic root dkrū̆ḳ (dhrū̆g) has not yet been found in the other Aryan languages.