Etymology

kick

K5I1C3K5

Today it means: To strike or hit with the foot or other extremity of the leg. Full definition →

Middle English kyken ← Old Norse kikna ← Proto-Germanic *kaikaz
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

kick · verb, noun1

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*ǵeyH-“to sprout, shoot”
  2. Proto-Germanic · derived from*kī-
  3. Proto-Germanic · derived from*kaikaz“bent backwards”
  4. Old Norse · derived fromkikna“to sink at the knees”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromkyken“to strike out with the foot”
  6. English todaykick

From Middle English kyken (“to strike out with the foot”), from Old Norse kikna (“to sink at the knees”) and keikja (“to bend backwards”) (compare Old Norse keikr (“bent backwards, the belly jutting forward”)), from Proto-Germanic *kaikaz (“bent backwards”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Proto-Germanic *kī-, *kij- (“to split, dodge, swerve sidewards”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵeyH- (“to sprout, shoot”). Compare also Dutch kijken (“to look”), Middle Low German kīken (“to look, watch”). See keek.

kick · verb2

Shortening of kick the bucket.

kick · verb3

Shortening of kick ass

Words from the same roots

Middle Englishkyken all →

keek

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.