An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/schön

by Friedrich Kluge

schön, adj., ‘beautiful, handsome, fine,’ from MidHG. schœne, OHG. scôni, ‘shining, bright, splendid, beautiful'; comp. OSax. skôni, ‘shining, light, beautiful,’ AS. sčŷne, ‘beautiful,’ E. sheen. Orig. ‘perceptible, worth seeing, noteworthy’ (comp. laut, lit. ‘that which is heard’); a verbal adj. from the Teut. root skau, ‘to look,’ in OHG. scouwôn (for the formation of the word see rein). Goth. has preserved only the cognate compounds, guþaskaunei, ‘form of God,’ and ibnaskauns, ‘of like appearance with,’ which imply a Goth. *skauns, ‘form’?. At all events, they show that the modern sense ‘beautiful’ did not orig. belong to the word. With the same root are connected the words adduced under schauen and OIc. skjóne, ‘dapple-grey horse,’ skjóme, ‘ray.’ See schon, schonen, and espec. schauen.