kill

kill · verb, noun¹

1. Old Norse · derived fromkolla“to hit on the head, harm”
2. Old English · inherited fromcwellan“to kill, murder, execute”
3. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*gʷelH-“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”
4. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*kwuljaną
5. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*kwulljan
6. Old English · inherited from*cyllan
7. Middle English · inherited fromkillen
8. English todaykill

From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”). * Perhaps from unattested Old English *cyllan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwulljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwuljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”). * Or, possibly a variant of Old English cwellan (“to kill, murder, execute”) (see quell). * Or, from Old Norse kolla (“to hit on the head, harm”), related to Norwegian kylla (“to poll”), Middle Dutch kollen (“to knock down”), Icelandic kollur (“top, head”); see also coll, cole). Compare also Saterland Frisian källe (“to hurt”), Middle Dutch kellen (“to kill, hurt”), Middle Low German kellen, killen (“to ache strongly, cause one great pain”) (whence German Low German kellen, killen (“to hurt, injure, torment, vex”)), Middle High German kellen (“to torment; torture”).

kill · noun²

1. Proto-Indo-European*ǵeyH-
2. Proto-Indo-European*ǵi(H)-l-
3. Proto-Germanic*kiljǭ
4. Proto-West Germanic*killjā
5. Old Dutch*killa
6. Middle Dutchkille
7. Dutchki
8. English todaykill

Borrowing from Dutch kil (formerly spelled kill), from Middle Dutch kille, from Old Dutch *killa, from Proto-West Germanic *killjā, from Proto-Germanic *kiljǭ (“fissure, slit; a type of stream, creek, channel”). Doublet of Kiel. Most place names with kill were derived entirely in Dutch, but many have been subsequently calqued into English or anglicized by folk etymology; for example, Motherkill and Murderkill both likely derive from Dutch *Modderkil (“Mud Creek”) (better preserved in Mudder Kill and Muddy Kill), originally having nothing to do with mothership or murder.

Kill · proper noun³

1. Yiddish · derived fromקיל“cool”
2. Latin · derived fromCelbis
3. English todayKill

* As a German and Dutch surname, probably shortened from Kilian. * Also as a German surname, from Kyll in the Eifel mountains, from Latin Celbis. * As a Jewish surname, probably from Yiddish קיל (kil, “cool”).

Words from the same roots