An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Heide

by Friedrich Kluge

Heide (1.), f., ‘heath, uncultivated land, heather,’ from MidHG. heide, OHG. heida, f., ‘heath, untilled, wild, overgrown land, heather’; comp. Goth. haiþi, f., ‘field, AS. hœ̂þ, m. and n., ‘heath, desert,’ also ‘heather,’ E. heath, OIc. heiðr, f. The prim. sense of the common Teut. word is ‘treeless, untilled plain’; the meaning ‘heather’ evolved from this is West Teut. (AS. Du. and G.), so too Du. hei, heide. Goth. haiþi, ‘field, plain,’ from pre-Teut. kâitî, occurs also in OInd. kšêtra-m, ‘field, cornfield, region, country,’ for skêtram. See the next word.

Heide (2.), m., ‘heathen, pagan,’ from MidHG. heiden, m., ‘heathen’ (espec. ‘Saracen’), OHG. heidan, m.; comp. Du. heiden, AS. hœ̂þen, E. heathen, OIc. heiðenn, ‘heathen.’ Ulfilas is acquainted only with the corresponding fem. haiþnô, ‘heathen woman,’ while the masc. plur. equiv. to Lat. gentes, Gr. ἔθνη, appears as þiudôs. The connection of the word with human progress is difficult to decide; on account of the diffusion of the word in all the Teut. dialects, we are evidently not concerned here with a word originating in the OHG. Biblical texts and translations. The usual assumption that Lat. paganus, ‘heathen,’ was the model on which the Teut. word was built needs to be restricted, since it is improbable that all the OTeut. dialects independently of one another should have given an inaccurate rendering of paganus, especially since the Slav. languages have borrowed the word directly (OSlov., Russ. poganŭ). Lat. paganus, ‘heathen’ (Ital. pagano, Fr. païen), appears in the second half of the 4th cent. after Christianity was established as the religion of the Empire by Constantine and his sons, and the old worship was forced from the towns into the country districts. The late occurrence of the Lat. word explains the fact that in Goth. first of all a solitary instance of the new term ‘heathen’ is found in the form haiþnô, f., ‘a heathen woman.’ But the appearance of the word in Goth. is more easily accounted for than in any other dialect from the Goth. forms haiþi, f., ‘field,’ haiþiwisks, ‘wild’ (miliþ h., ‘wild honey’). Hence in Goth. a form *haiþins would be connected more closely with Lat. paganus, while in the other dialects the corresponding word cannot probably be explained from the Lat. form. Perhaps here, as in the case of Kirche and Pfaffe, the influence of the Goths and of their Christianity upon the other Teutons is discernible. Comp. the history of the word taufen.