English
trick
Trick comes from Middle English trikke, and goes back to Old Northern French trique.
- Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400trique1
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trikke1
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596trick1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English trick
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Iohn: “He hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face.”.
Lineage
- Old Northern Frenchc. 842–1400triqueWiktionary, English trick
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500trikkeWiktionary, English trick
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1596trickWiktionary, English trick. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1596, William Shakespeare, The Life and Death of King Iohn: “He hath a trick of Cœur de Lion's face.”
The story
From Middle English trikke, from Old Northern French trique (related to Old French trichier (‘to defraud, act dishonestly, conceal, deceive, cheat’); > modern French tricher), itself possibly from Middle High German trechen (‘to launch a shot at, play a trick on’), or one of its derivatives. Middle High German ūftrechen (‘to do something to someone, hurt someone’), vertrechen (‘to conceal, get over on someone’), zuotrechen (‘to obtain falsely or deceitfully, wangle, finagle’), etc.); yet the Old French verb is equally likely to be derived from Vulgar Latin *triccāre, from Late Latin tricāre, from Latin trīcor, trīcārī (‘dodge, search for detours; haggle, quibble’). The term has been connected to Middle Dutch treck, trec (‘draw, line, desire, game move, cord, stratagem, ruse, trick’), from Middle Dutch trekken, trēken (‘to pull, place, put, move’), from Old Dutch *trekken, *trekan (‘to move, drag’), from Proto-Germanic *trakjaną, *trekaną (‘to drag, scrape, pull’), from Proto-Indo-European *dreg- (‘to drag, scrape’). If they are related, trick would be cognate with Low German trekken, Middle High German trecken, trechen, Danish trække, and Old Frisian trekka, Romanian truc and other Romance languages.
Explore everything descended from trique →
No ads, ever. This is how the app stays alive.
Become a founding member, $29 onceWear this word, $32Support the app
Today it means
noun Something designed to fool, dupe, outsmart, mislead or swindle.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “trick”. 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 Northern French trique / trick