An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/dulden

by Friedrich Kluge

dulden, vb. (unknown to the Suab., and perhaps also to the other UpG. dialects), ‘to bear, tolerate, suffer,’ from the equiv. MidHG. and OHG. dulten; a denominative of OHG. dult, MidHG. dult, f., ModHG. Geduld. The Goth used þulan for dulden without the dental deriv. (OHG. dolên, MidHG. doln, both far more general in meaning than the ModHG. dulden, ‘to suffer’; AS. þolian, ‘to suffer’). The pre-Teut. root is tel, tol, tlê, which appears, exactly corresponding to the meaning of the Teut. cognates, in Gr. τλή-μων ‘to suffer,’ τλή-μων, ‘miserable,’ πολύτλας, ‘much enduring,’ &c. Lat. tolerâre and ertragen (Lat. perferre), show that Lat. tollo (partic. latus tor *tlâ-tus; pret. tuli, from offero), and Gr. τολμᾶν, ‘to venture, endure,’ may be cognates. Hence the primary sense of the root appearing in the graded forms tel, tol, tlê, tlâ, is ‘to bear, tolerate.’ See Geduld.