An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/um

by Friedrich Kluge

um, adv. and prep. ‘about, around,’ from the equiv. MidHG. umbe (ümbe), OHG. umbi, cannot be regarded as directly corresponding to Gr. ἀμφί, Sans. abhi, ‘about,’ for then the OHG. form would be umb. OHG. unbi is rather a compound of this *umb, with the prep. bī̆, ‘by’; so too OSax. umbi, AS. ymbe (but ymb directly corresponds to Sans. abhi). —