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You are here: Home / Language / Where does the word “Kickshaw” come from and What does Kickshaw mean in French?

Where does the word “Kickshaw” come from and What does Kickshaw mean in French?

July 20, 2020 by Karen Hill

And of all the ways in which we who speak English have altered words of other languages the word kickshaw is literally something.

Yes, that is what it meant, “something.”

It began as the French plural, quelque chores, which, especially when used in cookery, and, generally, with a shrug of the shoulders, indicated, “just something dainty; mere trifles.”

By the elite, the pronunciation was que’que choses, which became in English speech, of the seventeenth century, keck shaws.

Our forebears then turned this back into a singular and the permanent pronunciation, kickshaw.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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