An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/sauber

by Friedrich Kluge

sauber, adj., ‘neat, clean, nice, pretty,’ from MidHG. sûber, sûver, ‘neat, clean, pretty,’ OHG. sûbar, sûbiri; OSax. *sûƀri, Du. zuiver, AS. sŷfre, ‘clean, purified, spotless’; Goth. *sûbri- is wanting. Since the agreement of the OWest Teut. dials. proves the early existence of the Teut. word, the assumption that it was borrowed from Lat. sobrius or Gr. σῦφαρ cannot be maintained.