*erǭ

Probably from a Proto-Germanic base *er- ‘fight, strife, hostile encounter’, best connected with Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- ‘to reach, arrive at, encounter’, with semantic development ‘reach/meet’ → ‘encounter, clash’ → ‘attack, battle’. Compare Sanskrit ऋ॒ति (ṛtí) and Ancient Greek ἔρῐς (érĭs, ‘strife; quarrel (especially of battle)’). Older comparisons with PIE *h₃er- ‘move, stir, rise’ are semantically attractive but formally problematic due to the expected late PIE *o coloring of the initial vowel leading to Early Proto-Germanic *a- instead of *e-. Related to *erlaz (‘man, nobleman’) and *ernustuz (‘seriousness, struggle, fight’),