The story
- Proto-Indo-European*gʷeyh₃-
- Proto-Indo-European*gʷih₃wós
- Proto-Germanic*kwikwaz
- Proto-West Germanic*kwiku
- Old Englishcwic
- Proto-Germanic*silubrą
- Proto-West Germanic*silubr
- Old Englishseolfor
- Old Englishcwicseolfor
- Middle Englishquyk silver
- English todayquicksilver
From Middle English quyk silver, quyksilver, quikselver, from Old English cwicseolfor (“quicksilver”, literally “living silver”) (see Latin argentum vīvum) from its ability to move. See quick in the sense of "living". Cognate with Dutch kwikzilver, German Low German Quicksülver, German Quecksilber, Danish kviksølv, Norwegian Bokmål kvikksølv, Swedish kvicksilver. By surface analysis, quick (“living”) + silver.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.