Etymology
1. O.E.
sceacan "to vibrate, make vibrate, move away" (class VI strong verb; past tense
scoc, pp.
scacen), from P.Gmc.
*skakanan (cf. O.N., Swed.
skaka, Dan.
skage "to shift, turn, veer"). No cognates outside Gmc. except perhaps Skt.
khaj "to agitate, churn." To
shake hands dates from 1535.
Shaky "insecure, unreliable" (of credit, etc.) is from 1841.
Shake a leg "hurry up" first recorded 1904;
shake a heel (sometimes
foot) was an old way to say "to dance" (1667). Phrase
more _____ than you can shake a stick at is attested from 1818, Amer.Eng. To
shake (one's) head as a sign of disapproval is recorded from c.1300.
Shaken, of persons, "weakened and agitated by shocks" is from 1641.
2. Etymology tree
3. Proto-Indo-European *skek-der.
4. Proto-Germanic *skakaną
5. Proto-West Germanic *skakan
6. Old English sċacan
7. Middle English schaken
8. English shake
9. From Middle English schaken, from Old English sċeacan, sċacan (“to shake”), from Proto-West Germanic *skakan, from Proto-Germanic *skakaną (“to shake, swing, escape”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keg-, *(s)kek- (“to jump, move”).
10. Cognate with Scots schake, schack (“to shake”), West Frisian schaekje (“to shake”), Dutch schaken (“to elope, make clean, shake”), Low German schaken (“to move, shift, push, shake”) and schacken (“to shake, shock”), Old Norse skaka (“to shake”), Norwegian Nynorsk skaka (“to shake”), Swedish skaka (“to shake”), Danish skage (“to shake”), Dutch schokken (“to shake, shock”), Russian скака́ть (skakátʹ, “to jump”). More at shock. See: Middle English '
schaken', Proto-Germanic '
*skakaną', Dutch '
schaken', Low Saxon 'schaken', Norwegian, nynorsk '
skaka', Swedish '
skaka', Danish '
skage', Dutch '
schokken', Russian '
скака́ть'.
Verbs referencing "shake"
Sranan
seki, Low Saxon schaken, Icelandic
skaka, Norwegian, nynorsk
skaka, Swedish
skaka, Maltese
xxejkja.