An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/gelingen

by Friedrich Kluge

gelingen, vb., ‘to prove succeesful, from MidHG. gelingen, OHG. gilingan, str. vb., ‘to be successful, proper’; MidHG. also lingen, ‘to proper, advance, get on.’ Allied to AS. lungre, ‘quickly,’ from pre-Teut. lughró-, to which the equiv. Gr. ἐλαφρός also points; the Aryan root lengh (lngh) appears also in Sans. lañgh, ram̃h, to spring, get on.’ See leicht.