Etymology

click

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Today it means: A brief, sharp, not particularly loud, relatively high-pitched sound produced by the impact of something small and hard against something hard, such as by the operation of a switch, a lock, or a latch. Full definition →

Middle English clike ← Old French clique
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click · noun, verb, interjection1

Imitative of the "click" sound; first recorded in the 1500s. Compare Saterland Frisian klikke (“to click”), Middle Dutch clicken (Modern Dutch: klikken (“to click”)), Old High German klecchen (Modern German: klecken, klicken (“to click”)), Danish klikke (“to click”), Swedish klicka (“to click”), Norwegian klikke (“to click”), Norwegian klekke (“to hatch”).

click · noun2

  1. Old French · derived fromclique“latch”
  2. Middle English · inherited fromclike
  3. English todayclick

From Middle English clike, from Old French clique (“latch”).

click · verb, noun3

  1. Old English · inherited from*clēċan
  2. Middle English · inherited fromcleken
  3. English todayclick

From Middle English cleken, a variant of clechen (“to grab”), perhaps from Old English *clēċan, *clǣċan, a byform of clyċċan (“to clutch”). More at clutch.

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishcleken all →

clutch

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.