Etymograph

English

keep

Keep comes from Middle English kepen ‘to keep, guard, look after, watch’, from Old English cēpan ‘to seize, hold, observe’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵab-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵab-1reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kōpijaną2‘to look’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kōpijan2reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150cēpan2‘to seize’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kepen2‘to keep’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1485keep2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English keep
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory: “And thenne whan the damoysel knewe certaynly that he…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵab-Wiktionary, Proto-Germanic *kōpijanąreconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*kōpijanąWiktionary, English keep‘to look’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*kōpijanWiktionary, English keepreconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150cēpanWiktionary, English keep‘to seize’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kepenWiktionary, English keep‘to keep’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1485keepWiktionary, English keep. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1485, Sir Thomas Malory: “And thenne whan the damoysel knewe certaynly that he…”

The story

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).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Explore everything descended from *ǵab- →

Another origin of keep

  1. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500kepe
  2. Englishtodaykeep

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Today it means

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

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “keep”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Proto-Germanic *kōpijaną. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ǵab- / keep