clean

\ \ [OE] Etymologically, clean and German klein ‘small’ are the same word. Both go back to West Germanic *klainoz, which meant ‘clear, pure’, but whereas the English adjective has stayed fairly close to the original meaning, the German one has passed via ‘clean’, ‘neat’, ‘dainty’, and ‘delicate’ to ‘small’. It has been speculated that *klainiz was based on *klai-, which connoted ‘stickiness’ (it was the source of English clay and clammy). The reasoning is that something sticky, perhaps from a coating of oil, would have been perceived as having a clear or shiny surface, and there may also have been a suggestion of the purity conferred by a ceremonial anointing with oil. The derivatives cleanse and cleanly (whence cleanliness) are both Old English formations.

\ \ Cf.⇒ CLAMMY, CLAY, CLEANSE