An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Hanf
Hanf, m., ‘hemp,’ from MidHG. hanf, hanef, m., OHG. hanaf, hanof, m.; a common Teut. word for ‘hemp’ (Goth. *hanaps is by chance not recorded); comp. AS. hœnep, E. hemp, OIc. hampr. The usual assumption that the word was borrowed from the South Europ. Gr. κάνναβις (Lat. cannabis) is untenable. The Teutons were not influenced by Southern civilisation until the last century or so before our era; no word borrowed from Gr.-Lat. has been fully subject to the OTeut. substitution of consonants (see Finne (1), Pfad, and the earliest loan-words under Kaiser). But the substitution of consonants in Goth. *hanaps compared with Gr. κἀνναβις proves that the word was naturalised among the Teutons even before 100 B.C. “The Greeks first became acquainted with hemp in the time of Herodotus; it was cultivated by the Scythians, and was probably obtained from Bactria and Sogdiana, the regions of the Caspian and the Aral, where it is said to grow luxuriantly even at the present time.” Thus we can all the more readily reject the assumption of South Europ. influence; comp. Leinen. Why should not the Teutons in their migration from Asia to Europe have become acquainted with the culture of hemp when passing through the south of Russia, where the plant grows wild, and indeed among the very people who directly or indirectly supplied the Greeks with the word κἀνναβις? (comp. also Erbse). κἀνναβις itself is a borrowed term, and Goth. *hanaps corresponds in sound quite as well with OSlov. konoplja, Lith. kanápes, ‘hemp.’ The word is found even among the Persians (kanab). It does not seem to be genuinely Aryan.