An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/keck

by Friedrich Kluge

keck, adjective, ‘pert, impudent,’ from Middle High German këc, a variant of quëc (inflected këcker, quëcker), ‘living, fresh’; Old High German chëc (inflected chëcchêr), quëc, quëcchêr, ‘living.’ Corresponding to Anglo-Saxon cwicu (cucu), ‘living,’ English quick. The primary meaning of the adjective is ‘living,’ and the Modern High German lebhaft, ‘lively,’ illustrates the development of the signification. For farther comparison we have to proceed from the corresponding Gothic adjective qiwa, ‘living’ (the second c, k of the High German and English words, is an insertion before the Gothic w). Gothic qiwa-, derived from gwiwo-, giwo-, corresponds exactly to Latin vîvus for gwîvus, Sanscrit jîvás, ‘living,’ allied to Latin vîvere (victus); Sanscrit jivâtus, ‘life,’ jîvathas, ‘life’; furthur, in Greek with an initial β (compare βαίνω, ‘to go’), βίος, βίοτος, βιόω; allied to Old Slovenian živŭ, Lithuanian gývas, Old Irish beo, ‘living.’ All these forms indicate an Aryan root gī̆w, ‘to live.’ This root seems to be graded in Teutonic only, in Old Icelandic kveykva, kveikja (Gothic *qaiwjan), ‘to light a fire,’ properly ‘to give life to.’ In Modern High German erquicken and Quecksilber are connected with the same root, and in fact with the Aryan, adjective gī̆wós, ‘living’; the loss of the u after q, which has differentiated keck from queck, is seen also in kommen, Köder, and Kot.