An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Ebbe

by Friedrich Kluge

Ebbe, f., ‘ebb,’ merely ModHG., borrowed, like many terms relating to the sea, from LG.; comp. Du. ebb, ebbe, f., Dan. ebbe, Swed. ebb, m. The word is first found in AS., where ebba, m., is the form (comp. E. ebb, whence also Fr. ébe), nautical terms being generally recorded at an earlier period in that language than elsewhere; comp. Boot, Leck, Schote (2.), Steven, and Bord. Had the OTeut. word been preserved in Ger. we should have expected OHG. eppo, ModHG. Eppe. It is possible that the word is connected with the cognates of eben (Ebbe, lit. ‘leveller,’? ‘plain’?). Yet Ebbe, from its meaning, is more appropriately connected with Goth. ibuks, ‘backwards, back’ (OHG. ippihhôn, ‘to roll back’); hence Ebbe is lit. ‘retreat’; the connection with eben (Goth. ibns) is not thereby excluded. Scand. has a peculiar word for Ebbe — fjara, ‘ebb,’ fyrva, ‘to ebb.’ No Goth. word is recorded.