Where does “breakneck” come from?
Breakneck combines English break, from Middle English breken and Old English brecan meaning to shatter, with English neck, ultimately tracing through Proto-Germanic hnakkô and Proto-Indo-European roots expressing the sense of breaking or fracturing.
breakneck (English): Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather; A fall that...
Definitions
- Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather; A fall that...
Ancestry of “breakneck”, step by step
breakneck traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English neck
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | neck | The part of the body connecting the head and the... |
| 2 | Middle English | nekke | neck |
| 3 | Old English | hnecca | back of the neck; back of the head; neck |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | *hnakkō | nape |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | hnakkô | the back of the neck; nape |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | knog- | back of the head, nape, neck |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ken- | to arise, begin |