Etymograph

English

shock

Shock comes from Middle Dutch schokken ‘to jolt’ or Middle French choquer, from Old Dutch *skokkan, from Proto-Germanic *skukkaną ‘to shake’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skukkaną‘to move, shake, tremble’reconstructed
  2. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*skokkan‘to shake up and down’reconstructed
  3. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500schokken‘to push, jolt, shake’uncertain
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1832shock

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skukkaną‘to move, shake, tremble’reconstructed
  2. Old Dutchc. 500–1150*skokkan‘to shake up and down’reconstructed
  3. Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500schokken‘to push, jolt, shake’uncertain
  4. Englishearliest quotation 1832shock

Earliest quotation: 1832, Thomas De Quincey, Klosterheim Or: “They saw the moment approach when the two parties…”

The story

Perhaps related to Proto-Germanic *skakaną (‘to shake, stir’), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kek-, *(s)keg- (‘to shake, stir’); see shake.

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *skek- ‘to jump’

shake, shoe, 3 more

Another origin of shock

  1. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*skokreconstructed
  2. Old Englishc. 450–1150*sċocuncertain
  3. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500schok‘a stook or shock’
  4. Englishtodayshock

Inherited from Middle English schok, from Old English *sċoc or Middle Low German schok; in any case, from Proto-West Germanic *skok and possibly related to Latvian kàudze and Lithuanian kiūgis.

Today it means

noun A sudden, heavy impact.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *skukkaną / shock

Shirt and support for this word