An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/so

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Smaragd

An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, S (1891)
by Friedrich Kluge, translated by John Francis Davis

so

Socke

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Friedrich Kluge2521129An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, S — so1891John Francis Davis

so, adv., ‘thus, so,’ from MidHG. and OHG. sô; corresponding to OSax. sô, which seems to represent *swô, although its relation to AS. swâ (E. so) and Goth. swa, ‘thus,’ cannot be accurately ascertained. Comp. als, also, and solch. The early history of this pronom. adv. (‘in this way’) is obscure; the fact that it assumed the function of a relative (i.e., was used as a conjunction) corresponds to a similar change in the use of der; sô appears as a relative particle in MidHG., but rarely in OHG.