peek

The story

1. Middle English · derived frompepen“to peep”
2. Middle English · inherited from*peken
3. English todaypeek

From Middle English *peken, piken, pyken (“to peep”), probably a fusion of Middle English pepen (“to peep”) and keken, kiken (“to keek, look, spy”), equivalent to a blend of peep + keek. Perhaps also possibly a metathetic alteration of Middle English kepen, kipen, kypen (“to keep, look, observe, watch”).

Words from the same roots