Borrowed from German Low German . The verb originally means “do business” and pertains to Makler (“broker”). It is not necessarily, however, the origin of this latter noun, whose attestations are significantly older. Rather it seems to be a back-formation. The further semantic development of the verb via “to haggle”, probably reinforced by unrelated Makel (“fault”).
mäkeln (weak, third-person singular present mäkelt, past tense mäkelte, past participle gemäkelt, auxiliary haben)
| infinitive | mäkeln | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| present participle | mäkelnd | ||||
| past participle | gemäkelt | ||||
| auxiliary | haben | ||||
| indicative | subjunctive | ||||
| singular | plural | singular | plural | ||
| present | ich mäkle ich mäkele ich mäkel |
wir mäkeln | i | ich mäkele ich mäkle |
wir mäkeln |
| du mäkelst | ihr mäkelt | du mäkelest du mäklest |
ihr mäkelet ihr mäklet | ||
| er mäkelt | sie mäkeln | er mäkele er mäkle |
sie mäkeln | ||
| preterite | ich mäkelte | wir mäkelten | ii | ich mäkelte1 | wir mäkelten1 |
| du mäkeltest | ihr mäkeltet | du mäkeltest1 | ihr mäkeltet1 | ||
| er mäkelte | sie mäkelten | er mäkelte1 | sie mäkelten1 | ||
| imperative | mäkle (du) mäkel (du) mäkele (du) |
mäkelt (ihr) | |||
1Rare except in very formal contexts; alternative in würde normally preferred.