Felsen

German

Etymology

From Middle High German felse, fels, from Old High German fels m (8. c), felis m (8. c), feliso m (8. c), felisa f (9. c), possibly from Proto-West Germanic *falis (“rock, cliff”), whence Old Saxon felis, Middle Dutch vels.

Pfeifer is uncertain about the further origin. In one theory, he mentions the comparison to Old Norse fjall, Swedish fjäll, Sanskrit पाषाण (pāṣāṇá), Ancient Greek πέλλα (pélla), Old Irish all (from Proto-Celtic *ɸallom) and thus reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *pels-, *pelis-. In another theory he mentions, the Old High German, Old Saxon and Middle Dutch terms are taken as a continuation of Pre-Indo-European *palá- (“mountain”) whence also falaise (“cliff”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

Felsen m (strong, genitive Felsens, plural Felsen)

1. rock

   Synonyms: Fels, Klippe

Declension

Declension of Felsen [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Felsen	die	Felsen
genitive	eines	des	Felsens	der	Felsen
dative	einem	dem	Felsen	den	Felsen
accusative	einen	den	Felsen	die	Felsen

Further reading

• “Felsen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Felsen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Felsen” in Duden online
• Felsen on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de