The story
- Proto-Germanic · derived from*kiljǭ
- Old Norse · derived fromkill“gulf, bay”
- German · borrowed fromKiel
- English todayKiel
Borrowed from German Kiel, named after Kiel Fjord of the Baltic Sea, from Old Norse kill (“gulf, bay”), from Proto-Germanic *kiljǭ, ultimately related to the verb *kīnaną (“to crack, split”). Doublet of kill (“creek”).
Words from the same roots
Proto-Germanic*kiljǭ all →
kill
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.