kill

kill¹ to put to death

Etymology

The verb is inherited from Middle English killen, earlier cullen (“to strike, hit”), also kulle and kelle.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Its origin is uncertain.^[8][9][10] Most dictionaries suggest an unrecorded Old English *cyllan,^{[11][7][6][2]} from Proto-Germanic *kuljan, an ablaut variant of *kwaljan, which gave Old English cwellan (“to kill”) and English quell.^[6][12][8] The OED, which calls the word of obscure origin and not found in the related languages, objects that the earliest sense, "to strike", speaks against this;^[8] Barnhart notes the objection and the gap of some 200 years between the Middle English record and the supposed Old English verb.^[2] Dictionary.com and Collins compare küllen in the Westphalian dialect.^[5][13] Klein relates cwellan to cwelan (“to die”), whose causative it is.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To strike, hit, beat: about 1225, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[8] Barnhart finds cullen "to strike" probably before 1200, in Layamon and the Ancrene Riwle.^[2] The sense "to put to death" follows about 1330, in King of Tars.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Ayto notes that the Old English verbs for killing were slēan, now slay, and cwellan, now quell, and that "hit" and "kill" often coexist in one word, as slay also once meant "hit";^[12] kill took the meaning "deprive of life" in the 14th century.^[12][4] At first it implied a person using a weapon; later any cause of death.^[8] To kill dead or kill to death is recorded from 1362.^[8] Figurative uses followed: "to put an end to" a feeling or plan (1435), "to destroy the vitality of" (1530), the exaggerated "to overwhelm" (1634) and to kill time (1728).^[14][8] The 19th century added "to delete" in printing and journalism (1865), "to drink up" (1833, first American) and "to turn off" an engine (1886).^[14] The noun meant "a stroke, blow" in an isolated early example;^[8][2] in at the kill is from 1814, the killing of hunted game from 1850, the animal killed from 1878 and the destruction of an enemy aircraft or ship from 1944.^[8][2] Killer appears as a surname in 1288 and killjoy in 1776.^[2] The past form kilt, once found in Middle English, is now regarded as Irish,^[8] and is also used in the American South.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – to strike, hit (obsolete by 1400).^[8]
• c. 1330 – to put to death.^[8]
• 1362 – to kill to death, to kill dead.^[8]
• 1435 – to put an end to a feeling or plan.^[14]
• 1530 – to destroy the vitality of an organism.^[8][14]
• 1634 – to overwhelm, in exaggeration.^[14]
• 1728 – to kill time.^[14]
• 1814 – noun, in at the kill.^[8]
• 1865 – to delete matter before publication.^[14]
• 1878 – noun, an animal killed.^[8][2]
• 1886 – to turn off an engine.^[14]
• 1944 – noun, the destruction of an enemy aircraft or ship.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cause the death of a person, animal or plant: The frost killed the tomatoes.^[13][4][8]
2. To put an end to; to destroy: The rain killed their hopes of a picnic.^[13][4]
3. To make time pass, especially while waiting.^[13][14]
4. To deaden or muffle a sound.^[13]
5. (informal) To tire out or exhaust.^[13]
6. (informal) To cause pain or discomfort: My back is killing me.^[13][14]
7. To cancel or delete, as text before publication.^[13][14]
8. To defeat or veto a proposal.^[13]
9. To turn off an engine or a light.^[14]
10. (obsolete) To strike or beat.^[8][7]

Noun

1. The act of killing, especially of hunted game.^[4][8]
2. An animal or animals killed, especially as prey.^[8][16]
3. The destruction of an enemy aircraft, ship or the like.^[8]
4. in at the kill: present at the end of a hunt, or at a successful conclusion.^[8][16]

Word family

• killer
• killing
• killable
• killjoy

kill² creek, stream

Etymology

The word for a creek is borrowed from Dutch kil, from Middle Dutch kille (“riverbed, channel”).^{[8][2][4][11][16][15]} Merriam-Webster relates it to an East Frisian word for a watercourse and to Old Norse kíll (“small bay, arm of the sea”),^[4][13] and perhaps to Old High German kīl (“wedge”);^[4] Barnhart calls its further origin uncertain.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A stream or creek: 1669, in a document of colonial New York about families settling "upon ye Kill below Apoquenimi".^[8][15][2] Earlier, in 1639, the Kil was the name of a strait behind Manhattan Island.^[15][2]

Semantic evolution

The word is used where the Dutch settled, especially in place names such as Schuylkill, "hidden stream",^[2] Catskill in New York and Broadkill in Delaware.^[4] A writer in 1890 called it a Dutch word for any tidal channel or backwater, counting the Harlem River as one; in 1937 nearly every stream smaller than a river was called a kill in Schoharie County, New York; and a geographer in 1955 found it limited to the Hudson Valley, the Catskills and the upper Delaware Valley.^[15] The Shorter Oxford labels it local to the United States.^[16]

Timeline

• 1639 – the Kil, the name of a strait behind Manhattan.^[15][2]
• 1669 – a stream, creek or tributary.^[8][15][2]
• 1890 – any tidal channel or backwater.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (US, regional) A stream, creek or channel, chiefly in New York and Delaware and in place names such as Catskill.^{[4][8][16][15]}