*alhs

Probably from Proto-Indo-European *h₂lek-, with the semantic development ‘protected, enclosed place’ > ‘sacred enclosure, sanctuary’. Cognate with Lithuanian al̃kas and Latvian elks, together pointing to a Baltic-Germanic *alk- denoting a sacred or protected place. Its deeper origin is disputed. The same root is reflected in Ancient Greek ἀλέξω (aléxō), ἀλκή (alkḗ), and Sanskrit रक्षति (rákṣati) (Mallory & Adams 1997: 458; Pokorny 1959: 32; Šorgo 2020: 432). Mallory and Adams specifically interpret the Germanic ‘temple’ word as originally a ‘protected place’, connecting the Germanic and Baltic sacred-place terms with the PIE verb ‘protect’.

Kroonen (2013: s.v. *alh-) instead reconstructs a non-Indo-European *alk- and regards the connection with *h₂lek- as arbitrary. Because the word is confined essentially to Baltic and Germanic and shows archaic root-noun inflection in Germanic, he suggests that it may have been borrowed independently into both branches from a local European substrate. Ringe (2017: 116) likewise avoids assigning the noun itself directly to PIE, deriving Proto-Germanic *alh- from *post-PIE alk- (‘sacred place’) and comparing Lithuanian al̃kas. Derksen (2015: 49–50, s.v. alkas) similarly regards substrate origin as possible for the Baltic forms. Most recently, however, Šorgo (2020: 432) argues that neither the limited Baltic-Germanic distribution nor the root inflection requires substrate origin. He judges derivation from *h₂lek- as preferable.