Where does “kill” come from?
Kill comes from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille, from Latin colligo meaning to gather together, derived from Latin con- and Latin ligo meaning to bind.
kill (English): To put to death; to extinguish the life of; To...
Definitions
- To put to death; to extinguish the life of; To...
Ancestry of “kill”, step by step
kill traces back through 3 separate lines of ancestry.
via Middle English killen
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle English | killen | — |
| 2 | Old English | cwellan | to kill; to slay |
| 3 | Proto-West Germanic | kwalljan | to make suffer, to hurt |
| 4 | Proto-Germanic | kwaljaną | to make suffer, to hurt |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | -janą | Derives denominatives from nouns and factitives... |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 8 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |