Etymology
1. c.1205, "to strike, hit, beat, knock." Sense of "to deprive of life" first recorded c.1330. Perhaps from an unrecorded variant of O.E.
cwellan "to kill" (see quell), but the earliest sense suggests otherwise. The noun meaning "an act of killing (an animal)" is from 1852. Lawn tennis serve sense is from 1903.
The kill "the knockout" is boxing jargon, 1950.
Killer in slang sense of "impressive person or thing" first recorded 1937; as an adj., 1979.
Killjoy is first recorded 1776; formerly used with other stems (cf.
kill-courtesy "boorish person,"
kill-cow "bully, big man," etc.). Sense in to
kill time is from 1728.
Killer whale is from 1725.
Killing "large profit" is 1888, Amer.Eng. slang.
Kill-devil, colloquial for "rum," especially if new or of bad quality, is from 1639.
2. From Middle English killen, kyllen, cüllen (“to strike, beat, cut”), of obscure origin. Cognate with Scots kele, keil (“to kill”).
3. * Perhaps from unattested Old English *cyllan, from Proto-West Germanic *kwulljan, from Proto-Germanic *kwuljaną, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH- (“to throw, hit, hurt by throwing”).
4. * Or, possibly a variant of Old English cwellan (“to kill, murder, execute”) (see quell).
5. * Or, from Old Norse kolla (“to hit on the head, harm”), related to Norwegian kylla (“to poll”), Middle Dutch kollen (“to knock down”), Icelandic kollur (“top, head”); see also coll, cole).
6. Compare also Saterland Frisian källe (“to hurt”), Middle Dutch kellen (“to kill, hurt”), Middle Low German kellen, killen (“to ache strongly, cause one great pain”) (whence German Low German kellen, killen (“to hurt, injure, torment, vex”)), Middle High German kellen (“to torment; torture”). See: Old English '
cwellan', Frisian, Saterlandic 'källe', Middle High German '
kellen'.
Verbs referencing "kill"
Sranan
kiri, Tok Pisin kilim, German, old spelling
killen.