An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/feil

by Friedrich Kluge

feil, adj., ‘for sale, venal,’ from MidHG. veile, veil, OHG. feili, with the curious variant fâli, adj., ‘purchaseable’; akin to the equiv. OIc. falr, with an abnormal vowel. Teut. faili- has according to OHG. fâli, OIc. falr, an inserted vowel in the accented syllable (comp. feige); hence it corresponds to Aryan pêli-, and is connected with Gr. πωλέομας, ‘to sell,’ and more remotely with the OInd. root pan for paln-, ‘to purchase, buy, exchange.’ —