An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/reiben

by Friedrich Kluge

reiben, vb., ‘to rub, scratch, scour,’ from the equiv. MidHG. rîben, OHG. rîban, for an older *wrîban, whence Fr. riper, ‘to scrape’; comp. LG. wrîven, Du. wrijven, ‘to rub.’ The Teut. root wrī̆b has not yet been found in the other Aryan languages.