An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/wirken

by Friedrich Kluge

wirken, verb, ‘to work, effect, produce,’ from the equivalent Middle High German wirken (würken), Old High German wirken (wurchen). This verb, properly strong, is common to Teutonic in the forms wirkjan, wurkjan; compare Gothic waúrkjan, Anglo-Saxon wyrčęan, also Old Saxon wirkian, Dutch werken. The Teutonic verbal root werk, work, to which Modern High German Werk belongs, is based on an old Aryan root werg (worg), which occurs in several dialects. With Greek ἔργον, ‘work,’ are connected ῥέζω (for *ϝρεγιω), ‘to do, perform,’ ὄργανον, ‘instrument,’ ὄργιον, ‘sacred rite’; so too the Zend root vṛz, verez, ‘to work, toil.’ The meanings, ‘to prepare by sewing, embroidering, weaving,’ incipient in Middle High German, have been preserved in Modern High German. There is also in German a compound derivative Old High German scuoh-wurhto, Middle High German schuochwürte, ‘shoemaker,’ whence Modern High German proper names such as Schubert, Schuchardt.