Etymologically
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quake

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Pronunciation

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English quaken, also cwakien and quakien,[2][3] inherited from Old English cwacian (“to quake, tremble, chatter (of teeth)”).[4][5][6][7][8] Old English also had the prefixed acwacian and the verbal noun cwacung (“shaking, trembling”).[4][5] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *kwakōną (“to shake, quiver, tremble”),[9][10] but the OED calls it of unknown origin, and Etymonline finds no certain cognates outside English.[4][5] It is related to cweccan (“to shake, swing, vibrate”), the source of dialect quetch;[5][11][12][4] Hoad compares Old Saxon quekilīk (“waving to and fro”),[11][13] and Collins also cites Old Irish bocaim and German wackeln.[14] It is perhaps imitative or expressive, like quaver and quiver;[4][5][15][11] the OED and Klein also compare quagmire.[4][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the earth or a thing, to shake or tremble: early Old English, in the Vespasian Psalter,[4] about 830 according to Barnhart.[3] The Old English verb was used of the quaking earth, of people trembling from cold, fear or fever, and of chattering teeth.[5][7]

Semantic evolution

The verb was weak in Old English;[4] Middle English also formed past tenses in -o-, such as quok and quook, by analogy with strong verbs like shake.[4][2][16] Chaucer used the verb 36 times.[16] The noun, a trembling, is recorded from before 1350,[4] and since the 17th century has served as a short form of earthquake: Etymonline dates this use to the 1640s, Barnhart to 1881 (with indirect references from before 1643), and the Shorter Oxford calls it colloquial and late 19th-century.[5][3][13] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as a shudder or tremulous agitation, quoting Suckling.[17] From about 1650 the members of the Society of Friends were nicknamed Quakers, a name they did not accept.[18][19] The phrase to quake in one's boots is recorded from 1862,[4] and the North American quaking aspen is so named by 1822.[5] In northern Irish dialect the verb could mean to cause to tremble, and in Sussex the quaking grass was called quake-grass.[20]

Timeline

  • c. 830 – Old English cwacian, of the earth, to shake.[3][4]
  • before 1200 – Middle English cwakien, in Layamon.[3]
  • before 1350 – noun, a quaking or trembling.[4]
  • 1616 – transitive, to cause to quake (now rare).[4]
  • 1640s – noun, an earthquake, according to Etymonline.[5]
  • 1862 – quake in one's boots.[4]
  • 1896 – noun, a mudflat or quagmire (chiefly British regional).[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of the ground or a thing, to shake or vibrate, as from a shock or convulsion: The house quaked as the trucks rolled past.[12][14][4]
  2. Of a person, to tremble or shudder, especially with fear or cold: The child quaked at the sound of thunder.[14][4][12]
  3. quake in one's boots: to be very afraid.[4]

Noun

  1. An act or instance of quaking; a trembling.[14][12][4]
  2. (informal) An earthquake.[14][13][12]

Word family

  • quaky
  • quakingly
  • icequake
  • microquake
  • quakeproof
  • seaquake
  • youthquake
  • Quaker

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
  8. ^ Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  9. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
  10. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  11. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  13. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  15. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  16. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
  17. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  18. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  19. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  20. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)