An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Seide

by Friedrich Kluge

Seide, f., ‘silk,’ from the equiv. MidHG. sîde, OHG. sîda, f.; derived from MidLat. sêta, ‘silk,’ like OHG. chrîda, from Lat. crêta. The d of the HG. words must be explained by the soft mute of the Rom. languages, appearing in Span., Prov. and North Ital. seda and Ital. seta, ‘silk’ (Fr. soie), just as in Span. greda, ‘chalk,’ compared with Ital. creta (comp. Seidel). MidLat. sêta, crêta (ê closed; see Preis, Pein, Speise, and feiern), may have been borrowed about the 10th cent. From Lat. sêta (lit. ‘bristle’) OIr. síta is also derived. For the assumption that the Phœnician town of Sidon furnished both the material and the name Seide, or rather Lat. sêta, there is no historic proof. In E. another term is used, AS. seole, seoloc, E. silk, to which the equiv. OIc. silke, n., is allied. It is usually assumed that these latter terms come from the Lat., in which serîcus (Ir. síric) means ‘of silk’; they must, however, especially since their forms can scarcely be deduced from the Lat., be more fittingly connected, like OSlov. šelkŭ, m., ‘silk,’ with an Eastern term; comp. Mongol. sirgek, ‘silk.’ The Seres, from whom the Greeks obtained their term σηρικὸς (Lat. sêricus), adj., cannot, as an East Asiatic people, be regarded as the immediate source of the North Europ. loan-words.