Etymology

keep

K5E1E1P3

Today it means: To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain. Full definition →

Middle English kepen ← Old English cēpan ← Proto-West Germanic *kōpijan
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keep · verb1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ǵab-
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kōpijaną“to look, heed, watch, observe”
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*kōpijan
  4. Old English · inherited fromcēpan“to seize, hold, observe”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromkepen“to keep, guard, look after, watch”
  6. English todaykeep

From Middle English kepen (“to keep, guard, look after, watch”), from Old English cēpan (“to seize, hold, observe”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną (“to look, heed, watch, observe”) (compare West Frisian kypje (“to look”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵab-, *ǵāb- (“to look after”) (compare Lithuanian žẽbti (“to eat reluctantly”), Russian забо́та (zabóta, “care, worry”)). The dialectal sense of the verb meaning “to put back” or “put away” may be analyzed as a semantic loan from a local language—compare Welsh cadw and Mandarin 收 (shōu).

keep · noun2

  1. Middle English · inherited fromkepe
  2. English todaykeep

From Middle English kepe, kep, from the verb (see above).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.