Etymograph

English

peak

Peak comes from Middle English pek (found in place names), from Old English Pēac-, as in Pēacland.

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150Pēac-1‘peak (in place names)’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pek1‘peak’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1659peak1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English peak
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1659, Titus Livius [i.e., (please specify the book number): “There peaketh up a mightie high mounte.”.

Lineage

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150Pēac-Wiktionary, English peak‘peak (in place names)’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500pekWiktionary, English peak‘peak’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1659peakWiktionary, English peak. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1659, Titus Livius [i.e., (please specify the book number): “There peaketh up a mightie high mounte.”

The story

From earlier peake, peek, peke, from Middle English pek (in place names), itself an alteration of pike, pyke, pyk (‘a sharp point, pike’), from Old English pīc, piic (‘a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle’), from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz (‘peak’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-West Germanic *pīk ‘sharp point, pike’

pickaxe

through Old English pīc ‘a pike, needle, pin, peak, pinnacle’

pitch, pike

Today it means

noun A point; the sharp end or top of anything that terminates in a point; as, the peak, or front, of a cap.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “peak”. 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 / Old English Pēac- / peak

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