*hreganą

Seemingly from a Proto-Indo-European *krek- (‘to jut out’), though Kroonen adduces no cognates outside of Germanic, specifically rejecting the traditional connections with Ancient Greek κρόσσαι (króssai) (króssai, ‘stepped copings of parapets’), Lithuanian krãkė (‘rod, staff’), Russian кроква (krókva, ‘bar, club, rafters’). Orel, who reconstructs the Germanic as *reganą, instead derives the root from Proto-Indo-European *h₁erǵʰ- (‘to move, go’), comparing Ancient Greek ἔρχομαι (érkhomai) (érkhomai, ‘to come, go’); however, in light of Old High German hragēn, this is phonetically untenable, as well as semantically tenuous.