Etymology

neck

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Today it means: The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals. Full definition →

Middle English nekke ← Old English hnecca ← Proto-West Germanic *hnakkō
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neck · noun, verb1

  1. Proto-Germanic*hnakkô
  2. Proto-West Germanic*hnakkō
  3. Old Englishhnecca
  4. Middle Englishnekke
  5. English todayneck

From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, *hnæcca (“neck, nape”), from Proto-West Germanic *hnakkō, from Proto-Germanic *hnakkô (“nape, neck”), from Proto-Indo-European *knog-, *kneg- (“back of the head, nape, neck”). Cognate with Scots nek (“neck”), North Frisian neek, neeke, Nak (“neck”), Saterland Frisian Näkke (“neck”), West Frisian nekke (“neck”), Dutch nek (“neck”), German Low German Nack (“neck”), German Nacken (“nape of the neck”), Danish nakke (“neck”), Swedish nacke (“nape of the neck”), Icelandic hnakki (“neck”), Tocharian A kñuk (“neck, nape”). Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (compare Old English hnocc (“hook, penis”), Welsh cnwch (“joint, knob”), Latvian knaūķis (“dwarf”). Doublet of nek. More at nook. Displaced halse (“neck, throat”) and swire (“neck”).

neck · noun2

  1. Swedish · borrowed fromnäck
  2. Danish · borrowed fromnøkke
  3. English todayneck

From Danish nøkke, Swedish näck.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.