Where does “overkill” come from?
Overkill comes from English over- and kill, where kill derives from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille, ultimately from Latin ligo meaning to bind or tie.
overkill (English): A destructive capacity that exceeds that needed...
Definitions
- A destructive capacity that exceeds that needed...
Ancestry of “overkill”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | kill | To put to death; to extinguish the life of; To... |
| 2 | Middle English | killen | — |
| 3 | Old English | cwellan | to kill; to slay |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | kwalljan | to make suffer, to hurt |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | kwaljaną | to make suffer, to hurt |
| 6 | Proto-Germanic | -janą | Derives denominatives from nouns and factitives... |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 9 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |