An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Kirche
Kirche, f., ‘church,’ from the equiv. MidHG. kirche (Swiss chilche), OHG. chirī̆hha (Swiss chī̆lihha), f.; corresponding to Du. kerk, AS. čiriče, čyriče, E. church. As is shown by the OHG. hh of chirī̆hha, the word must have existed before the OHG. period; names of places with Kirche are found in Germany even before the beginning of the 8th cent.; yet the word is unknown to Goth. (the terms used were gudhûs, ‘the house of God,’ gards or razn - bidô, ‘house of prayer’; also aíkklêsjô, ‘coetus christianorum’). The other Teut. tribes must, however, have adopted the term from Gr. through the medium of Goth. (comp. Pfaffe, also Heide, Taufe, and Teufel). It is true that Gr. κυριακή (with ἡμέρα understood) during the first ten centuries signified ‘Sunday’ exclusively, and only from the 11th cent. onwards did it obtain the meaning ‘house of the Lord.’ But since the word is foreign, we may assume that the gender of κυριακόν, ‘church’ (or its plur. κῦριακά), recorded from the 4th cent., was changed (OHG. chī̆rī̆hha, f.). Since the Gr. word was never current in the Romish Church (the LatRom. as well as the Kelt. term being ecclesia), we have in Kirche a term of the Greek Church, though in other cases the words adopted with Christianity are essentially Lat. (from Goth. *kyreika, Russ. cerkovĭ, and OSlov. crŭky are also probably derived). The introduction of Kirche through a Goth. medium was possible as late as the 9th cent. at least, for, according to Wal. Strabo, divine service was celebrated on the Lower Danube in the Goth. language even at that period. —