An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/elf

by Friedrich Kluge

elf, eilf, num., ‘eleven,’ from the equiv. MidHG. eilf, eilif, einlif, OHG. einlif; a term common to Teut. for ‘eleven.’ Comp. OSax. êlleƀan (for ênliƀan), AS. ândleofan, endleofan (for ânleofan), E. eleven, OIc. eilifu, Goth. aintif. A compound of Goth. ains, HG. ein, and the component -lif in Zwölf (Goth. twalif). In the non-Teut. languages only Lith. has a corresponding formation; comp. Lith. vënólika, ‘eleven,’ twýlika, ‘twelve,’ trŷlika, keturiólika (and so on up to nineteen); the f of the Ger. word is a permutation of k, as in Wolf (λύκος). The signification of the second component, which is met with in Teut. only in the numbers elf and zwölf, is altogether uncertain. Some have derived the compound, upon which the Lith. and Teut. words are based, from the Aryan root lik, ‘to remain over’ (see leihen), or from the Aryan root lip (see bleiben), and regarded elf as ‘one over.’