Etymology

shake

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Today it means: To cause (something) to move rapidly in opposite directions alternatingly. Full definition →

Middle English schaken ← Old English sċacan ← Proto-West Germanic *skakan
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*skek-
  2. Proto-Germanic*skakaną
  3. Proto-West Germanic*skakan
  4. Old Englishsċacan
  5. Middle Englishschaken
  6. English todayshake

From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan (“to shake”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakan, from Proto-Germanic *skakaną (“to shake, swing, escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keg-, *(s)kek- (“to jump, move”). Cognate with Scots schake, schack (“to shake”), West Frisian schaekje (“to shake”), Dutch schaken (“to elope, make clean, shake”), Low German schaken (“to move, shift, push, shake”) and schacken (“to shake, shock”), Old Norse skaka (“to shake”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Danish skage (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ, “to jump”). More at shock.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Germanic*skakaną all →

shock

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.