English

keep

/kiːp/
To continue in (a course or mode of action); to not intermit or fall from; to uphold or maintain.

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    Origin

    Etymology 1

    From Middle English kepen (“to keep, guard, look after, watch”), from Old English cēpan (“to seize, hold, observe”), from Proto-West Germanic *kōpijan, from Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną (“to look, heed, watch, observe”) (compare West Frisian kypje (“to look”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵab-, *ǵāb- (“to look after”) (compare Lithuanian žẽbti (“to eat reluctantly”), Russian забо́та (zabóta, “care, worry”)).

    The dialectal sense of the verb meaning “to put back” or “put away” may be analyzed as a semantic loan from a local language—compare Welsh cadw and Mandarin 收 (shōu).

    Etymology 2

    From Middle English kepe, kep, from the verb (see above).

    From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Lineage

    • inheritedMiddle Englishkepen “to keep, guard, look after, watch”
      • inheritedOld Englishcēpan “to seize, hold, observe”
        • inheritedProto-West Germanic*kōpijan
          • inheritedProto-Germanic*kōpijaną “to look, heed, watch, observe”
    • inheritedMiddle Englishkepe

    Related: West Frisian kypje, Lithuanian žẽbti, Russian забо́та

    Words built on it: keep up, keep it real

    Sources