An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/heben

by Friedrich Kluge

heben, vb., ‘to raise, lift, levy, solve (doubts) settle (disputes), remove,’ from MidHG. hęben, hęvea, ‘to rise, raise, list,’ OHG. hęffan, hęvan (prop. hęffu, hęvis, hęvit, hęffamês, inf. hęffan), from habjan, which occurs in Goth. in the sense of ‘to raise, lift up’; root, haf, hab; b properly belonged in the str. vb. to the pret. plur. and partic., but may have found its way into other stems. AS. hębban (sing. hębbe, hęfst, hęfþ, &c.), E. to heave; ModDu. heffen; OIc. hefja. Respecting j as a formative element of the pres. stem in str. vb., see under schaffen, lachen, &c.; it corresponds to Lat. i in vbs. of the 3rd conjug., such as facio. Hence Lat. capio corresponds exactly to Goth. hafjen; Aryan root kap. There are numerous examples in Teut. of the sense ‘to seize,’ which belongs to the Lat. vb.; see under Haft. Since Lat. capio is not allied to habeo, and Lat. habeo is cognate with Teut. haben (capio, root kap, habeo, ‘to have,’ root khabh), haben is entirely unconnected with heben. Yet in certain cases it cannot be doubted that the words related to haben have influenced the meaning of those connected with heben; some words may be indifferently assigned to the one or the other; comp. e.g. Habe with Handhabe. With the root kap, Lat. capio, some also connect Gr. κώπη, ‘handle.’