The story
- Proto-Indo-European*mreǵʰ-
- Proto-Indo-European*mréǵʰus
- Proto-Hellenic*brəkʰús
- Ancient Greekβρᾰχῠ́ς (brăkhŭ́s)
- Ancient Greekβρᾰχῑ́ων (brăkhī́ōn)
- Latinbracchium
- Latinbrāchiātus
- Vulgar Latin*brāchiātellus
- Old High Germanbrēzitella
- Middle High Germanbrēzel
- GermanBrezel
- GermanPretze
- English todaypretzel
From dialectal German Pretzel, a variant of standard Brezel, from Old High German brēzitella, from Vulgar Latin *brāchiātellus, diminutive of Latin brāchium, bracchium (“arm”); named for the appearance of folded arms.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.