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Etymology and origin of the English word quicken

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1357 J. Gaytryge, Lay Folks' Catechism More words from the 14th century
Ultimate origin
Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English quick
English quicken
From the same root
English quickly ← quick

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkwɪk(ə)n/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English quick (“alive”) + -en,[2][3][4][5] first as Middle English quikenen, also quiknen and northern whikken.[6][5] The OED and the Middle English Dictionary compare Old Norse kvikna (“to come to life”) and Old Swedish qvikna (“to come to life”).[2][6] The earlier verb was simply quick, from about 1200, from late Old English gecwician.[3] The adjective goes back to Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz (“alive”), the source also of kvikr, Old Saxon quik and Old High German quec.[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

To give or restore spiritual life to: 1357, in J. Gaytryge's Lay Folks' Catechism.[2] Etymonline dates the verb to about 1300, with the senses "come to life", "give life to" and "return to life from the dead",[3] and Dictionary.com to 1250–1300.[8]

Semantic evolution

The first senses were about life: the Wycliffite Bible (before 1382) has a dead man who "quykenede aȝeen & stood vp on his feet".[6][2] Johnson (1755) gave "to make alive" first, quoting the Psalms, "with them thou hast quickened me".[9] From life the verb passed to vigour: to rouse or stir up a person (about 1430) and to stimulate a feeling or faculty (before 1500),[2][4] and also to kindling a fire (about 1425).[2] From 1530 it was used of a pregnant woman reaching the stage when the fetus is felt to move.[2][4] The sense "to hasten, to make faster" appears only in the 1620s,[3][4] and in the early 18th century the verb was also used for making a curve sharper or a slope steeper.[4] In northern dialects it kept the older sense "to revive", with forms such as whicken and wicken.[10]

Timeline

  • 1357 – to give or restore spiritual life.[2]
  • before 1382 – to bring back to life; to come to life, revive.[2][6]
  • c. 1425 – to kindle a fire.[2]
  • c. 1430 – to give vigour to; to rouse.[2][4]
  • 1530 – of a pregnant woman, to feel the fetus move.[2][4]
  • 1591 – to make a medicine or drink sharper (obsolete by 1827).[2]
  • 1620s – to hasten, to make faster.[3][4]
  • 1686 – to start or speed up fermentation.[2]
  • 1714 – to grow bright.[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To make or become faster; to accelerate: She quickened her stride as the rain began.[5][11][4]
  2. To stimulate or enliven; to rouse: The old photographs quickened his memory.[5][11][2]
  3. (literary) To make alive or revive; to come to life.[5][11][2]
  4. Of a fetus, to begin to move in the womb; of a pregnant woman, to reach the stage when this movement is felt.[11][2][4]
  5. To make a curve sharper or a slope steeper.[5][4]
  6. (archaic) To kindle a fire, or make it burn more brightly.[5][2][4]

Word family

  • quickener
  • requicken
  • unquickened

Usage notes

In northern English and Scottish use quicken, or quicken tree, is also the rowan or mountain ash, recorded from before 1400 and apparently formed from quick with an ending of uncertain origin,[2][5][4] and quickens are the rhizomes of couch grass, from about 1425.[2][4] A verb quicken, to coat or mix with mercury, recorded from 1738, is formed from quicksilver.[2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b c d 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)
  7. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  10. ^ 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)
  11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
Cite this entry

“Quicken.” Etymologically, 14 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/quicken. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

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