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cheek

Etymology and origin of the English word cheek

History Permalink
Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 825
Inherited from
Old English cēace
Ultimate origin
Old English (cēace)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /tʃiːk/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English cēace, cēce, cēoce, jaw, jawbone (before 830),[2][3][4] from Proto-West Germanic *kaukōn, *kǣkōn,[4][2] cognate with Middle Low German kāke and Dutch kaak, jaw;[2][3][5] Etymonline calls it of uncertain origin,[3] and Barnhart relates it to chew.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The jaw or jawbone: about 825, now obsolete in this sense.[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The fleshy side of the face below the eye is from about 950.[6][4] Etymonline notes that words for cheek, jaw and chin tend to run together in Indo-European languages (compare chin), and quotes Chaucer's Samson killing a thousand men with “an asses cheek”.[3] The buttocks are cheeks from about 1600.[3][7] The sense of brazen insolence is from 1840, in the phrase give cheek, and first recorded as a noun in Dickens's Bleak House (1852);[2][3] Word Origins compares the earlier use of face.[7] Cheeky is from 1859,[2] and in cheek by jowl, jowl also means cheek.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 825 – the jaw.[6]
  • c. 950 – the side of the face.[6]
  • c. 1600 – a buttock.[3]
  • 1840 – give cheek, insolence.[2][3]
  • 1859 – cheeky.[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. Either side of the face below the eye.
  2. (informal) Rude or disrespectful talk or behaviour; impudence.
  3. (informal) Either of the buttocks.

Verb

  1. (informal) To speak rudely to.

Word family

  • cheekful
  • cheekless
  • cheekpiece
  • cheekbone
  • cheeked
  • cheeky
  • tongue-in-cheek
  • cheek by jowl

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press

Related etymologies

  • half · also from Old English
  • food · also from Old English
  • wrong · also from Old English
  • win · also from Old English
  • almost · also from Old English
  • death · also from Old English
  • become · also from Old English
  • true · also from Old English
Cite this entry

“Cheek.” Etymologically, 17 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/cheek. Accessed 17 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·