Note 5 — Chapter I
Reading edition
It may be objected that the Goths from about 250 A.D. were living close to the Greeks, and the Old Germans from about 50 B.C. had the Romans as their neighbours, and possibly learned the art of ploughing from these neighbours and borrowed a name for it. It seems enough, however, to answer that if the Goths had taken a word from ἀρόειν they would have chosen something more like the pattern word than erjan: in like manner if the Germans had borrowed from arare they would hardly have formed eren.